Jaegwon Kim: a biography of this philosopher of the mind

A summary of the life of Jaegwon Kim, a philosopher interested in the human mind and consciousness.

Throughout the history of philosophy, we find outstanding figures who became world-renowned for their contributions to this field of knowledge. One such figure, belonging to contemporary history, was Jaegwon Kim (1934-2019), an American philosopher of Korean origin.

In this article we will look at a biography of Jaegwon Kimas well as his most relevant contributions to philosophy and, more specifically, to the philosophy of mind and the mind-body problem.

Jaegwon Kim's short biography.

Jaegwon Kim was born in Daegu (South Korea) on September 12, 1934. He began studying French literature at the University of Seoul (Korea), although only for two years. Then, in 1955, he entered Dartmouth College (USA). He later changed his major from French literature to one that combined French, philosophy and mathematics. So it was at Dartmouth College that he graduated. He later earned a Ph, D. in philosophy from Princeton University (New Jersey, USA)..

In addition, Jaegwon Kim worked as professor emeritus of philosophy at Brown University during the 1960s. during the 1960s; in between he worked elsewhere, but returned to Brown in 1987, where he stayed until his death.

Kim also worked as professor of philosophy at other universities: the University of Michigan, the University of Notre Dame, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University and Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania, USA).

Other interesting facts about Jaegwon Kim are that he was president of the American Philosophical Association for one year, from 1988 to 1989. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and editor of the quarterly philosophical journal Noûs with the Cuban philosopher Ernesto Sosa.

Finally, Jaegwon Kim passed away on November 27, 2019, at the age of 85.

The mind-body problem

Jaegwon Kim, a thinker who rejected strict physicalism and focused on research on metaphysics, survival, the mind-body dilemma and above all, the philosophy of mind. He was an American philosopher, of Korean origin, who became known as a result of his work on the philosophy of mind. became known as a result of his work on the "mind-body problem"..

The mind-body problem (also called mind-body dilemma) refers to the difficulty in explaining the relationship between mind (or soul, for some) and matter. That is, How can mental states (such as beliefs, memories, sensations...) explain or interact with the material world (the world of objects)?

In addition, Jaegwon Kim's contributions also focused on the field of epistemology and metaphysics. The topics on which this philosopher worked especially were: survival, Cartesian metaphysics (or rather, its rejection), individualization of events and the limitations of psychophysical identity.

As a noteworthy fact, Jaegwon Kim's most important works have been collected in the book Supervenience and Mind: Selected Philosophical Essays (1993).

Influences

Jaegwon Kim himself acknowledged that his main influences, at the philosophical level, derived from the American philosophers Carl Hempel and Roderick Chisholm. From Hempel, above all, he was influenced by his logical positivist approach, and from Chisholm, Kim claimed to have learned "not to fear metaphysics.".

Contributions and thought

Jaegwon Kim developed his work focusing on different topics about philosophy of mind, metaphysics, philosophy of science, action theory and epistemology. All of them are fields of knowledge (or currents) within philosophy.

Philosophy of mind

Jaegwon Kim defended, during his career, different theories of the mind-body dilemma. At the beginning, in the early 1970s, Kim defended a version of the identity theory of the body-mind dilemma..

To get an idea, the identity theory (also called "mind-brain identity theory") is a theory that states that the states and processes of the mind are the same (or equivalent) to the processes that take place in the brain (brain processes). Thus, according to this theory, mental processes are actually mental activities or connections.

After defending his version of the identity theory, Kim went on to defend another theory, in this case a non-reductive version of physicalism. went on to defend another theory, in this case a non-reductive version of physicalism..

For its part, physicalism is a doctrine of philosophy, related to naturalism and materialism, which speaks about the nature of real things, and which holds that only the physical (including the mental) exists.

Rejection of strict physicalism

Jaegwon Kim rejected strict physicalism; according to him, this doctrine was insufficient to explain, understand or resolve the mind-body dilemma. According to him, moreover, the problem of consciousness (the much researched and discussed question in philosophy, "what is human consciousness?") could never be solved through physicalism..

Some of his works (in this case, monographs), such as: "Mind in a Physical World" (1998) and "Physicalism, or Something Near Enough" (2005) address this issue; the rejection or criticism of strict physicalism in order to explain certain phenomena of philosophy or aspects of the human condition itself, with their corresponding arguments.

2. Dualism

Another thesis defended by Jaegwon Kim was that desires and beliefs, as intentional mental states, could be functionally reduced to their neurological realizers, but non-intentional mental states (such as sensations) are physical, and could not be reduced to something even more primary.

In this sense, Kim would be defending a version of dualism. For its part, dualism is that philosophical (or also religious) doctrine which establishes that the order of the universe is the result of an action that combines two opposite and irreducible principles.

3. The study of the mind

According to Jaegwon Kim (as he explained in a 2008 interview with the Korean newspaper Joongang Ilbo), in order to understand and explain how the human mind works, we must resort to a naturalistic explanation..

This is so because the mind consists of a natural phenomenon (and not "supernatural", for example). So, in reality, a reliable explanation of the functioning and nature of the mind, would be provided by a natural science, and not so much by philosophy.

Works

Some of Jaegwon Kim's most notable works are:

• Supervenience and MindCambridge University Press (1993)
• Mind in a Physical WorldMIT Press (1998)
• Making Sense of Emergence, Philosophical Studies 95 (1999)
• Physicalism, or Something Near EnoughPrinceton University Press (2005)
• Philosophy of Mind2nd ed., Westview Press (2006)