Eliminative materialism
Some familiar mental categories, such as belief and desire, may fail to refer to real states.
What it claims
Eliminative materialism treats folk psychology—the everyday explanation of action through beliefs, desires, and intentions—as an empirical theory rather than an unquestionable description. On its strong version, that theory is sufficiently mistaken that mature neuroscience will replace its categories, not identify them with better-understood states. Churchland (1981) argues that folk psychology has limited resources for explaining mental illness, sleep, learning, and memory, and may integrate poorly with developing science.
Nearby positions
Goes together with
Key thinkers
Paul M. Churchland · Patricia S. Churchland · Paul Feyerabend · Stephen Stich · Richard Rorty