Supervenience, Reductionism and Mirror Neurons System

[Psychophysical Supervenience] "The mental supervenes on the physical in that any two things exactly alike in all physical properties cannot differ in respect of mental properties" (Kim, 1996). Kim endorses a reductive supervenience, according to which mental causation would be a mere illusion. I consider Kim s distinction between levels (micro/macro) and orders (physical/mental) very interesting and important from a logical and metaphysical point of view to clarify the causal role of some mental properties and notably consciousness (Kim, 1998; 2006). About mind/body problem I endorse the theories of ontological monism and epistemological dualism. The discovery of the mirror neurons system (MNS) and its way of working is a good example to understand the previous theories. According to Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia (2006), it seems that perception, understanding and action are grouped together into a unified mechanism, according to which "the brain that acts is also and above all a brain that understands" (Ib., p.3). Finally, I try to show the theoretical concordance of this discovery with the supervenience reductive theory of mind claimed by Kim (1993, 1996, 1998, 2005).

Autorentext

Nicola Simonetti is a High School Teacher of Philosophy and Social Sciences and also a PhD student in Cognitive Sciences at the University of Siena, with a Research Program in Philosophy of Mind and Neurosciences. He wrote some articles on philosophy of language and mind, and wrote two books on Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Sciences (2004; 2012)

Klappentext

[Psychophysical Supervenience] «The mental supervenes on the physical in that any two things exactly alike in all physical properties cannot differ in respect of mental properties» (Kim, 1996). Kim endorses a reductive supervenience, according to which mental causation would be a mere illusion. I consider Kim s distinction between levels (micro/macro) and orders (physical/mental) very interesting and important from a logical and metaphysical point of view to clarify the causal role of some mental properties and notably consciousness (Kim, 1998; 2006). About mind/body problem I endorse the theories of ontological monism and epistemological dualism. The discovery of the mirror neurons system (MNS) and its way of working is a good example to understand the previous theories. According to Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia (2006), it seems that perception, understanding and action are grouped together into a unified mechanism, according to which «the brain that acts is also and above all a brain that understands» (Ib., p.3). Finally, I try to show the theoretical concordance of this discovery with the supervenience reductive theory of mind claimed by Kim (1993, 1996, 1998, 2005).