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Functionalism, emergence, and collective coordinates: A statistical physics perspective on “What to say to a skeptical metaphysician”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2005

Cosma Rohilla Shalizi
Cosma Rohilla Shalizi*
Affiliation:
Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109http://bactra.org/
*
cshalizi@umich.edu
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Abstract:

The positions Ross & Spurrett (R&S) take on issues of information, causality, functionalism, and emergence are actually implicit in the theory and practice of statistical physics, specifically in the way it relates macroscopic collective coordinates to microscopic physics. The reasons for taking macroscopic physical variables like temperature or magnetization to be real apply equally to mental properties like pain.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 27 , Issue 5 , October 2004 , pp. 635 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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