Re-Emergence

The presence of sentience in a basically material reality is among the mysteries ofexistence. Many philosophers of mind argue that conscious states and properties are nothing beyondthe matter that brings them about. Finding these arguments less than satisfactory, Gerald Visionoffers a nonphysicalist theory of mind. Revisiting and defending a key doctrine of the once widelyaccepted school of philosophy known as emergentism, Vision proposes that conscious states areemergents, although they depend for their existence on their material bases. Although many previousemergentist theories have been decisively undermined, Vision argues that emergent options are stillviable on some issues. In Re-Emergence he explores the question of conscious properties arising frombrute, unthinking matter, making the case that there is no equally plausible non-emergentalternative. Vision defends emergentism even while conceding that conscious properties and statesare realized by or strongly supervene on the physical. He argues, however, that conscious propertiescannot be reduced to, identified with, or given the right kind of materialist explanation in termsof the physical reality on which they depend. Rather than use emergentism simply to assail thecurrent physicalist orthodoxy, Vision views emergentism as a contribution to understanding consciousaspects. After describing and defending his version of emergentism, Vision reviews several varietiesof physicalism and near-physicalism, finding that his emergent theory does a better job of coming togrips with these phenomena.

Gerald Vision is Professor of Philosophy at Temple University. He is the author of Veritas: The Correspondence Theory and Its Critics (MIT Press, 2004) and other books.