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J. J. C. Smart, Materialism and Occam's Razor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2009

Peter Glassen
Peter Glassen
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba
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Abstract

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Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy , Volume 51 , Issue 197 , July 1976 , pp. 349 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1976

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References

1 University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland, 1967, pp. 84–93.

2 Presumably if one were a materialist one might embrace a heart process thesis, or a liver process thesis, or something else of the sort. All these would be equally consistent with materialism. However, the only one of these theses that nowadays would be credited with having any degree of plausibility is the brain process thesis, and I shall disregard other possibilities. It should be noted that one could in principle accept the brain process thesis without being a thorough going materialist.

3 Ironically, Occam himself might have felt uncomfortable with this conclusion.