and Intellectual Honesty

Mainly by offering a detailed criticism of distilled versions of the two main lines of argument for (ontological) physicalism, the causal-closure-line and the functionalist line, this paper aims to show that the rational support for physicalism (or materialism) is less strong than it is usually taken to be by its many adherents. In fact, physicalism is a metaphysical position, far exceeding what is vouched for by empirical science. Physicalism, therefore, does not have a greater rational claim on our credence than any other metaphysical position, for example, dualism (which position is given some argumentative support in the paper). Defending the view of – at least – metaphysical equality between dualism and physicalism also involves restating correctly and clearly what is often left unclear, or is explicated in a misleading way: what it is that physicalism and dualism basically amount to as ontological theses