Reductive Physicalism A doctrine stating that everything in the world can be reduced down to its fundamental physical, or material, basis. For this reason, the word "physicalism" is often used interchangeably with the

So option number three (Physicalism) actually hides two very different views here: A reductive view of physicalism or materialism and a non-reductive view of materialism or physicalism. First of all, I want to try to make that distinction

distinguish between "reductive physicalism " and "nonreductive physicalism." The reductive physicalist says that humans are purely physical beings and thus all of our thoughts, emotions, and experiences are nothing but

soft or nonreductive naturalism, whose context is ordinary human experience and language, and hard or reductive naturalism. The latter includes epistemological naturalism (a universal application of the scientific method

alternative has been a reductive physicalist account, which seems to imply determinism . Therefore, it is important in theological discussions to distinguish between reductive and nonreductive versions of physicalism. To see the difference,

The key will be nonreductive physicalism, originating in the work of Roy Wood Sellars, and now including the focus on emergent properties of hierarchical systems. Sellars, in emphasizing the significance of organizations and wholes,