Sensations and Brain Processes

Introduction

J. J. C. Smart, a British-born philosopher at the University of Adelaide, published the paper in The Philosophical Review in 1959, building on U. T. Place’s article of 1956. His main motive is Ockham’s razor: if sensations were not brain processes, they would be “nomological danglers”, the only things in the world not covered by physical science. To show that the identity thesis is coherent, he proposes “topic-neutral” translations of sensation reports: saying “I see a yellowish-orange after-image” amounts to saying that something is going on like what goes on when I see an orange, without saying what kind of thing it is. Smart then answers eight objections. With Place’s article the paper founded the identity theory of mind.

Connections

Builds on

• Is Consciousness a Brain Process?1956 · U. T. Place

Criticizes

• The Concept of Mind1949 · Gilbert Ryle

More works by J. J. C. Smart

• 1973Utilitarianism: For and Against