Jaegwon Kim

Jaegwon Kim was a philosopher known for his contributions to the mind-body problem, particularly his arguments for physicalism—the idea that everything, including mental states, can be explained in physical terms. He explored mental causation, questioning how mental states can cause physical actions if they are not part of the physical realm. Kim also debated reductionism, which suggests that higher-level mental states can be reduced to physical processes, versus emergentism, which posits that mental states arise from but aren’t reducible to physical processes. His work deeply influenced discussions on how mind and body interact and coexist.