The Inadequacy of Anomalous Monism as a Realist Theory of Mind

Abstract

Donald Davidson’s theory of mind, “anomalous monism”, has been extremely influential in the philosophy of mind during the two and a half decades since Davidson devised it. In particular, it has attracted a number of followers among a group I will call “naturalistic mentalists” — philosophers who are strongly realist about mental phenomena, but who seek to explain the facts about human mental life within a materialist framework and to locate mental phenomena within the natural, causal order. The main reason for such enthusiasm as is found within this camp is that Davidson’s theory has appeared to many of these philosophers to offer relief from one of the most vexing puzzles bedeviling naturalistic theorizing about the mind.