Physicalism is formed on the assumption that physics is the most perfect science and thus able to explain and predict everything. In this article I try to explain the main idea of physicalism and the methods of determining the physical and then attempt to enumerate both similarities and dissimilarities of a prioi and a posteriori physicalisms. a posteriori physicalism which is but another expression of reductionism is to determine the relation of the mental and the physical with reference to empirical evidence while a priori physicalism, which is another term for non-reductionistic attempts to do the same task in terms of logical inference without referring to any experiment. Having made an examination and comparison between two types of physicalism I came to conclusion that the main difference between these two perspectives lies in “mental property”. The concluding part of the article gives a critical analysis of mental property and its implications in contemporary philosophy of mind.
Armstrong, D. M., (1993) A Materialist Theory of The Mind, Routledge, London & New York.
Block, Ned, (1997) “On a confusion about a function of consciousness” in Ned Block, Owen Flangan and Guven Guzelder(eds.) Nature of Consciousness, Institute of technology, Massachusetts.
Brown , Richard, (2006) “What is a brain state” in Philosiohical psychology 19(6): 729-742.
Chalmers, David, (1995) Conscious Mind; in search of a fundamental theory, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.
ـــــــــ , & Jackson, Frank, (2001) “Conceptual Analysis, Dualism and Explanatory Gap”, in the Philosophical Review 110: 315-61.Avaiable: http: //consc. net/papers/analysis. html
Graham, George, (1998) Philosophy of Mind: An introduction, Blackwell, Massachusetts.
Heil, John, (1998) Philosophy of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction, Routledge, London and New York.
Jackson, Frank, (1997) “Finding the Mind in The Natural World” in Ned Block, Owen Flangan and Guven Guzelder(eds) Nature of Consciousness, Institute of technology , Massachusetts.
ـــــــــ , (2005) “The case for a priori physicalism” in christian Nimtz & Ansgar Beckerman(eds.) Philosophy-science-scientific philosophyin, Main lectures and colloquia of Gap 5, Fifth international congress of the society for analytical philosophy, Mentis.
Kant, Immanuel, (1929) Critique of Pure Reason, Tr. by N. Kemp Smith, St. Martin's Press, New York.
Kim, Jaegwon, (1998) Philosophy of Mind, Westview press, Oxford.
Latham, Noa, (2003) “What is token physicalism” In Pacific philosophicalQuarterly 84(3): 270-290.Available: http: //philpapers. org/rec/LATWIT
Levine, Joseph, (2003) “Materialism And Qualia: The explanatory Gap” in Timothy o' connor & David Robb(ed) Philosophy Of Mind; Contemporary Readings, Routledge.
Madell, Geoffrey, Mind and Materialism, Edinburgh university press, 1988.
McGinn, Colin, (2001) “What is it not like to be a brain” in Philip Van(ed) The physical nature of consciousness, John Benjamin publishing company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
Mclaughlin, Brian, P., (2005) “A priori Versus A posteriori Physicalism” in christian Nimtz & Ansgar Beckermann(eds.) Philosophy-science-scientific philosophy, Main lectures and colloquia of Gap 5, Fifth international congress of the society for analytical philosophy, Mentis.
Melenky, Andrew, (2003) A Physicalist Manifesto, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Mitchell, David Braddon & Jackson, Frank, (1996) Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, Blackwell, Massachusetts.
Nagel, Ernest, (1961) The Structure of Science: Problems in the logic of scientific explanation, Harcourt, Brace & World.
Papineau, David, “The rise of physicalism” in Barry Smith(ed.) Physicalism and its discontents, (2001) Gillett and barry loewer(eds.) cambridge university press.
Ryle, Gilbert, (1991) “From "Self-Knwledge"” in David. M Rosenthal(ed.) Nature Of Mind, Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford.
Smart, J. J. C, (1991) “Sensationa and Brain Processes” in David. M Rosenthal(ed) Nature Of Mind, Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford.
Smith, A. D, (1993)“Non-Reductive Physicalism ” In Howard Robikson(ed.) Objections to Physicalism, Clarendon press, Oxford.
Sanaee, A. (2010). Foundation of the Difference between A priori and A posteriori Physicalisms and Their Implications. Naqd Va Nazar, 15(57), 23-49.
MLA
Ali Sanaee. "Foundation of the Difference between A priori and A posteriori Physicalisms and Their Implications", Naqd Va Nazar, 15, 57, 2010, 23-49.
HARVARD
Sanaee, A. (2010). 'Foundation of the Difference between A priori and A posteriori Physicalisms and Their Implications', Naqd Va Nazar, 15(57), pp. 23-49.
VANCOUVER
Sanaee, A. Foundation of the Difference between A priori and A posteriori Physicalisms and Their Implications. Naqd Va Nazar, 2010; 15(57): 23-49.
)