Mach’s neutral monism

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mach’s neutral monism

AU - Textor, Mark

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science. All rights reserved. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/3/1

Y1 - 2021/3/1

N2 - The father of neutral monism, Ernst Mach, argued that the fundamental constituents of the world are neither mental nor physical and that the distinction between the mental and physical ought to be erased. This article offers a reconstruction of Mach’s view. There is a “pure drive for knowledge” (reiner Erkenntnistrieb), and satisfying it, Mach argues, requires abandoning the mental/physical distinction. The reconstruction given will help to articulate and assess the differences between Mach’s position and Russell’s neutral monism, in which the distinction between the mental and physical is preserved even in the unified science of the future.

AB - The father of neutral monism, Ernst Mach, argued that the fundamental constituents of the world are neither mental nor physical and that the distinction between the mental and physical ought to be erased. This article offers a reconstruction of Mach’s view. There is a “pure drive for knowledge” (reiner Erkenntnistrieb), and satisfying it, Mach argues, requires abandoning the mental/physical distinction. The reconstruction given will help to articulate and assess the differences between Mach’s position and Russell’s neutral monism, in which the distinction between the mental and physical is preserved even in the unified science of the future.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85104621467

U2 - 10.1086/712943

DO - 10.1086/712943

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85104621467

SN - 2152-5188

VL - 11

SP - 143

EP - 165

JO - HOPOS

JF - HOPOS

IS - 1

ER -