Some considerations of eliminative materialism

Abstract

The article presents certain critiques against the philosophical theory of main, known as eliminative materialism, as exposed by Paul and Patrice Churchland. Eliminative materialism is closely linked to the so-called theory of identity, which affirms the existence of an identity of mental and cerebral states or events. The Churchland's consider that the theory of identity is a proposal of intertheoretical reduction, that is to say, a proposal that intends to reduce the formulations of "popular psychology" with respect to the mental, to expressions of a more explicative scientific theory in terms of the cerebral. n this manner, the article treats the position of eliminative materialism as an "opposition between languages, i.e., between common language (related to "popular psychology") and scientific language (related to the theory about cerebral states and events). The author criticizes the eliminationist's opinion that the only language capable of sustaining a legitimate knowledge of mental processes is the scientific. He argues that, although the dualistic myth implicit in ordinary language must not be preserved, ordinary language cannot be completely abandoned, due to its explicative and predictive power, and to its being widely capable of functioning as means to express desires, beliefs and intentions.