It is indeed fortunate that Materialism discusses this difficult, intriguing topic with enough clarity for a wide range of audiences. Brown and Ladyman endeavour to demonstrate how this revised account of physicalism could shed light on staunch debates about the nature of mind and its relationship with the world.

As the authors rightly note, philosophers of mind have neglected how the advent of modern physics changed the scientific conception of matter, and this neglect has hindered their ability to engage with questions about the nature of mind and its relation with the world. What is more, the book engages with some important theories in the philosophy of mind in the context of these advances in physics and the reconceptualized metaphysics they spurred. The time for presenting a popular version of the new naturalist metaphysics is ripe and Brown and Ladyman’s book fills this need. The significance of this enterprise has remained sadly neglected by the wider philosophical community, given that a limited number of philosophers are well versed in mathematical physics and set/model theory. This new approach is largely achieved without abandoning its introductory, pedagogical style, though there are a few occasions where the book may prove challenging even to philosophers who are well versed in the literature.įor some time now, a group of progressive philosophers (French and Ladyman Ladyman and Ross French ) have endeavoured to reconceptualize metaphysics in light of relativity and quantum physics. The book revises the definition of ‘materialism’ based on lessons learned from breakthroughs in twentieth-century physics and offers an updated version of the old theory ‘physicalism’. Materialism: A Philosophical Inquiry by Robin Gordon Brown and James Ladyman presents an introduction to the history and philosophy of materialism for non-specialists.

Every Thing Must Go by James Ladyman