What Is Physicalism about the Human Mind?
Humans have minds, exemplify mental properties, and undergo mental processes. Some examples of mental properties are thinking that one’s keys are in the ignition, hoping that the gas gauge is broken, wishing that the weather will be fine tomorrow, fearing that the repair will be costly, and doubting that all politicians are crooks; other examples of mental properties are smelling the distinctive smell of gasoline (in the absence of actual gasoline), seeing the distinctive blueness of a cloudless sky (in the absence of any blue sky), having an ache in the shoulder, and feeling stressed. Examples of mental processes are figuring out what is causing one’s child’s fever, planning a trip to Colorado, and deciding to have no dessert. There’s a narrow sense of the word “physical” in which minds, mental properties, and mental processes are clearly not physical phenomena: terms like “mind,” “thinking,” and “feeling” don’t appear in the theories of fundamental physics. In this same narrow sense
