Naturalism, materialism, and first philosophy

Philosophia 8 (2-3):261-276 (1978)
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Abstract

First, The doctrine of naturalism, That reality is spatio-Temporal, Is defended. Second, The doctrine of materialism or physicalism, That this spatio-Temporal reality involves nothing but the entities of physics working according to the principles of physics, Is defended. Third, It is argued that these doctrines do not constitute a "first philosophy." a satisfactory first philosophy should recognize universals, In the form of instantiated properties and relations. Laws of nature are constituted by relations between universals. What universals there are, And what relations hold between them, Must be discovered "a posteriori" by scientific investigation.

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References found in this work

Infinite regress arguments and the problem of universals.D. Armstrong - 1974 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 52 (3):191 – 201.
Ryle and the mechanical hypothesis.Brian Medlin - 1967 - In Charles Frederick Presley, The identity theory of mind. [St. Lucia, Brisbane]: University of Queensland Press. pp. 94--150.

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