More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of Persons

Michael Esfeld has recently put forth his ontology of persons, with which he hopes to secure freedom and irreducible personhood as well as scientific realism, all by working with minimal ontological assumptions. I present his view and investigate it, finding it too minimalistic: Esfeld’s featureless...

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Main Author: Alin Christoph Cucu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Warsaw 2023-11-01
Series:Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eidos.uw.edu.pl/more-substance-please/
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author Alin Christoph Cucu
author_facet Alin Christoph Cucu
author_sort Alin Christoph Cucu
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description Michael Esfeld has recently put forth his ontology of persons, with which he hopes to secure freedom and irreducible personhood as well as scientific realism, all by working with minimal ontological assumptions. I present his view and investigate it, finding it too minimalistic: Esfeld’s featureless matter points do not warrant an emergence of persons from matter, and his claim that persons can create themselves by adopting a normative attitude seems more like a just-so story. Also, Esfeld’s rejection of classical mind-body dualism seems premature. I present as an alternative a modified mind-body dualism which solves the problems of Esfeld’s view and argue that embedding it in a theistic worldview is favorable for any account that seeks to establish irreducible personhood.
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spelling doaj.art-6542bc30c3114b41a74df2fdfb0b31a32023-12-16T16:48:44ZengUniversity of WarsawEidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture2544-302X2023-11-0173486610.14394/eidos.jpc.2023.0023More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of PersonsAlin Christoph Cucu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9127-9662University of LausanneMichael Esfeld has recently put forth his ontology of persons, with which he hopes to secure freedom and irreducible personhood as well as scientific realism, all by working with minimal ontological assumptions. I present his view and investigate it, finding it too minimalistic: Esfeld’s featureless matter points do not warrant an emergence of persons from matter, and his claim that persons can create themselves by adopting a normative attitude seems more like a just-so story. Also, Esfeld’s rejection of classical mind-body dualism seems premature. I present as an alternative a modified mind-body dualism which solves the problems of Esfeld’s view and argue that embedding it in a theistic worldview is favorable for any account that seeks to establish irreducible personhood.https://eidos.uw.edu.pl/more-substance-please/personsnaturalismsuper-humeanismcausal closuredualismminimalist ontology
spellingShingle Alin Christoph Cucu
More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of Persons
Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture
persons
naturalism
super-humeanism
causal closure
dualism
minimalist ontology
title More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of Persons
title_full More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of Persons
title_fullStr More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of Persons
title_full_unstemmed More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of Persons
title_short More Substance, Please: A Reply To Michael Esfeld’s Minimalist Ontology of Persons
title_sort more substance please a reply to michael esfeld s minimalist ontology of persons
topic persons
naturalism
super-humeanism
causal closure
dualism
minimalist ontology
url https://eidos.uw.edu.pl/more-substance-please/
work_keys_str_mv AT alinchristophcucu moresubstancepleaseareplytomichaelesfeldsminimalistontologyofpersons