Is Nonreductive Physicalism Viable?

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Philosophy - Theoretical (Realisation, Science, Logic, Language), , language: English, abstract: In this essay, I want to cast doubt on the idea of nonreductive physicalism. I will do that by a kind of pessimistic meta-induction. Therefore, I will introduce some main theories concerning the relation of the mental and the physical which were intended to support nonreductive physicalism. In order to motivate these accounts, I shall briefly outline the psycho-neural identity and its problems. I intend to confront each of the nonreductive theories with at least one major difficulty. This will lead to a more fundamental reflection on the methodology of inquiring into the metaphysics of mind. Furthermore, I will sketch some possible routes that one might take if the answer to the title of this paper would be negative.