ABSTRACT

Materialism, in the philosophy of mind, is the view that all aspects of the human mind are purely material processes. Different accounts of how material processes and mechanisms can instantiate and give rise to mental phenomena have been proposed but all agree that definite physical processes, suitably organized, must suffice to generate and explain the mind. This chapter develops and extends an argument against the possibility of explaining in purely materialist terms the mathematical and logical powers of human beings. KRA (the argument to be developed) challenges this received view, arguing that at least a subset of our rational powers (i.e., our mathematical and logical powers) have features that no physical power and process can have. Hence, mathematical and logical powers are not entirely physical powers.