Source Title:
Metaphysica
|
Volume/Issue:
Volume 15: Issue 2

Against the Maximality Principle

C. S. Sutton 1
  • 1 Department of Philosophy, Virginia Commonwealth University, 915 W. Franklin St., Richmond, VA 23284-2025, USA
C. S. Sutton
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/mp-2014-0023
|
Published online:
21 Oct 2014

Abstract

To hold that only one conscious thing is sitting in your chair, philosophers have appealed to maximality: If a property M is maximal, then anything that has property M does not have large proper parts that have property M. Philosophers have said that ordinary objects are maximal, including houses, cats, rocks, and have argued by analogy that consciousness is maximal. I argue that the maximality principle mistakenly excludes some members of a kind. Thus, it is not the correct principle to explain why, for example, you are conscious but the proper part that is all-of-you-but-your-arm is not conscious.

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Article information

Published Online:
2014-10-21
Published in Print:
2014-11-28

Citation Information: 
Metaphysica, Volume 15, Issue 2, Pages 381–389, eISSN 1874-6373, ISSN 1437-2053, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mp-2014-0023.

©2014 by De Gruyter.

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Journal + Issues

Metaphysica

Online ISSN:
1874-6373
First published:
30 Apr 2014
Language:
English
Publisher:
De Gruyter

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