'Ignoramus et Ignorabimus'? Does Contemporary Antiphysicalism Have a Positive Program?

Abstract

This article attempts to find out whether the contemporary antiphysicalism has a positive program. Using the approaches of such contemporary analytical philosophers as Colin McGinn, Joseph Levine, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Nagel, and David Chalmers, the author evaluates the ratio of negative and positive components in modern antiphysicalistic approaches, and determines the role of skepticism in their theories. To what extent can antiphysicalism withstand physicalism, and is physicalism in spite of its faults in a better position, since it offers, admittedly imperfect answers, while antiphysicalism does not offer anything other than criticism of the existing theories?

Keywords: mind-body problem, skepticism, antiphysicalism, physicalism, cognitive closure, explanatory gap, mysteries and problems, mysterianism in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of mind, McGinn, Levin, Chomsky, Nagel, Chalmers

JEL Classification: Z00