ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides consideration of specific versions of physicalism, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of such views. An understanding of physicalism in terms of supervenience is often described as minimal physicalism, since it is often thought that a commitment to supervenience is required for a view to count as physicalist: Though different versions of physicalism may differ from one another in all sorts of respects, they must share a commitment to the supervenience of the mental on the physical. Interestingly, the case for physicalism is often pursued not by presenting positive arguments for the view but instead by showing that its chief rival, dualism, is untenable. When considerations of simplicity are invoked in the debate between dualism and physicalism – as well as in philosophy more generally – they tend to be referred to as Ockham’s Razor.
