Thomas Gardner
Muhlenberg College
Non-reductive physicalism is perhaps the most widely held metaphysical view about the nature of the mind, and one of its most common forms is supervenience physicalism. In this essay, I exploit the shortcomings of several proposed supervenience theses to show that no supervenience thesis can form the basis of a defensible form of non-reductive physicalism. I argue that, in order for any supervenience thesis to ground a legitimate form of physicalism, it must imply that certain laws hold between physical and non-physical (e.g., mental) properties. Then I argue that these laws are ultimately without explanation if reductionism is abandoned.