Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Philosophers Index Abstract

It is argued that, because of scientific essentialism, two currently popular arguments against the mind-body identity thesis--the multiple-realizability argument and the Nagel-Jackson knowledge argument--are unsatisfactory as they stand and that their problems are incurable. It is then argued that a refutation of the identity thesis in its full generality can be achieved by weaving together two traditional Cartesian arguments--the modal¹ argument and the certainty argument. This argument establishes, not just the falsity of the identity thesis, but also the metaphysical possibility of disembodiment.