Physicalism, Emergence and Downward Causation

The next version to excite attention took off from the idea that, while mental terms cannot be translated into physical terms (as Carnap’s program had required) nevertheless, it does not follow that these terms refer to non-physical states. So, it was proposed, mental phenomena can be identical with states and processes in the brain, even though psychological descriptions have meanings different from physical descriptions. The official line was that it is an empirical question for science to determine whether such identities in fact obtain. Nevertheless, the advocates of this ‘contingent identity’ thesis left no doubt as to what they believed the answer would be.