Two-Pronged Argument in Defending Property Dualism by David Chalmers

Abstract

David Chalmers considers phenomenal mind to be a natural phenomenon, falling under natural laws, and does not logically (a priori) supervene on brain physical processes. The philosopher labeled his concept of mind as naturalistic dualism and classifi ed it as a variety of property dualism. The notion of aposteriori necessity threatens the apriori character of property dualism with a serious danger. In “The Conscious Mind” Chalmers tried to overcome this diffi culty through coordinating apriori and aposteriori necessity with the help of two-dimensional semantics. In his latest papers the philosopher attempted to work up the two-dimensional argument which, he believed, can increase the modal effi cacy of apriori judgment in defending property dualism.