A Linguistic Reading of Anomalous Monism

Abstract

In this thesis a linguistic reading of anomalous monism is proposed. This interpretation of Donald Davidson's theory of mind is meant to counter the charges of causal idleness made against anomalous monism by critics such as Jaegwon Kim. The interpretation proposed in this thesis holds that anomalous monism should be seen as a thesis concerning descriptions of states as mental or physical, rather than as a thesis concerning ontological domains of mental and physical events. In support of this interpretation a truth-value notion of supervenience is developed.