Materialism, Minimal Emergentism, and the Hard Problem of Consciousness
The Waning of Materialism March 25, 2010 Terry Horgan
The chapter presents and defends minimal emergentism, a non-materialist metaphysical position that posits brute inter-level necessitation relations (either nomically or metaphysically necessary) between physical and mental phenomena. It contrasts this view with stronger forms of emergentism and outlines powerful challenges to materialism arising from features of human consciousness. The argument concludes that minimal emergentism offers a viable and theoretically appealing alternative to materialism for understanding the mind.