Tyler Burge
Tyler Burge ( born 1946 ) is an American philosopher and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1971, Burge his Doctor of Philosophy at Princeton University.
Burge has made contributions to various philosophical topics, especially on epistemology and philosophy of mind. He became famous for his arguments for externalism (also called " anti- individualism "), and whose thesis is that the content of a mental state is not determined solely by the brain. Today Burge is considered one of the most prominent critics of the reductionist and physicalist tendencies in the philosophy of mind. He has also made important contributions to Gottlob Frege research.
Externalism
The externalism in the philosophy of mind the theory that the mind is not determined solely by the brain. So it is conceivable that two people are in the same biological condition, but have about two different thoughts. Externalisten explain that the specific content of a thought rather depends also on the natural and social environment.
The classic formulation of this position can be found in Burges 1979 erschienenem essay Individualism and the Mental. Burges reasoning is based on an argument of Hilary Putnam, who tried to show in 1975 in The Meaning of Meaning with a thought experiment that meanings are dependent on the environment.
Burge offers the following thought experiment: A Patient A felt pains in the thighs and goes to the doctor to have the conviction arthritis. This opinion is wrong because it is only spoken in joint disease of arthritis. Now Burge encourages you to imagine a Twin Earth thought experiment in where everything matches except for one with the current world. The exception is that on twin earth also inflammation in the thigh "arthritis" are mentioned. A patient B in the twin world had, in contrast to A is a true opinion, if he thinks to have Arthrites. This applies even if he completely in his physical- biological structure resembles A.
Now Burge argues as follows: A and B must have different opinions, as the opinion of A is false and B true. However, A and B are similar in their complete physical and biological structure. So can two people are alike in their bio- physical structure without equal in their opinions. Opinions are part of the mind / consciousness. So people may differ in their mental or states of consciousness, without differ in their biological and physical structure. So the mind is not determined by biology ( or even the brain). Philosophers speak of it, that the mind supervenes not on the brain.
Doubt on physicalism
Burge is also regarded as a skeptic of physicalist theories of mind. He means not only that physicalism so far have unsolved problems, but explained about in the essay published in 1993 Mind Body Causation and Explanation also that the common objection to nichtphysikalistische positions is implausible. Mostly physicalists argue with the phenomenon of mental causation: Mental states can have physical effects, such as anxiety can cause an escape. Now it seems to escape but also to give a purely biological cause. Physicalists argue now that the biological cause would make any mental cause superfluous. As a solution to this problem they have, due to the mental cause on the biological cause. However, Burge explained that it was no problem to start from a plurality of causes. This brings him to the following location: