Just because the study of philosophy, metaphysics and ideologies goes back millennia, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still room for a new ism. And one is envisioned in a new draft paper by professor Eric Schwitzgebel at the University of California, Riverside, US. He calls it “Crazyism”
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Certain fundamental questions about the metaphysics of mind can’t, it seems, be settled by science, in anything like its current state, or by abstract reasoning. To address these questions we must turn to common sense. If we then have good reason to think that common sense, too, is no reliable guide, we are unmoored. Without common sense as a constraint, the possibilities open up, bizarre and beautiful in their different ways; and once open they refuse to shut. This is crazyism.”
The paper touches on aliens, zombies, bees, cats, quantum mechanics, and whether beer cans might feel pain. The full picture can be appreciated by reading ‘The Crazyist Metaphysics of Mind’ (June 2013)
Note : The professor has previously featured at Improbable : See:
Professorial Product Placement, and
Do ethicists steal more books (and stuff)?