In the 20th century, everyone knew that the mind was more than just the brain, since simple introspection could determine the existence of a consciousness inexplicable in simple material terms.
No, they didn’t. Superficial research indicates that serious materialism goes back to at least the Enlightenment in the 18th century. And the 20th century? That’s notevenplausible.
And of course, de La Mettrie was himself extending what Descartes argued a century before him about animals. So the serious doubt was there even in the 17th century, though still with a careful “But maybe humans are special (wink wink nudge nudge at the Catholic church)”.
Both also handily take care of the notion that “In the 19th century, everyone knew that life was on a different order than mere matter”; yeah, it was the mainstream view of the British science establishment, Lord Kelvin being a prominent figure… but serious mechanistic view of life predates his offense by at least two centuries. That was still a time when it wasn’t considered particularly controversial that science is different in different countries. French scientists were on board with the philosophical arguments; and heck, Leuwenhoek did most of his work in the 17th century too. We can learn from Kelvin’s arrogance and indignity, but let’s not forget that science took a lot of steps back thanks to politics, religion and someone simply declaring “people in the past were stupid”. That doesn’t mean we should follow the ideas of “the Ancients knew everything best” of course. Reverse stupidity and all that.
And as for Newton… we know now that he was wrong, don’t we? There are no magical influences over distance. Everything affecting anything else in the universe must send something material to propagate that influence. Not to mention that the claim “everyone knew that real scientific physics only permitted a body to act upon another body through direct contact” doesn’t hold water anyway—Thales described the magnetic properties of lodestones in 6th century BC; people were well aware that influences can somehow propagate through “empty” space. Another example would be when people first realized that lightning and thunder are two aspects of literally the same thing, each arriving to us at different time due to different propagation speed. Newton was rightly dismissed for his mystical beliefs—but the things that actually worked… worked. That’s all the reason the learned people needed to believe them (while still being free to believe or dismiss alchemy, astrology and any other silly things Newton believed in).
Really, we should be wary of saying stuff like “In year X, everyone knew Y”. It tends to turn out rather silly most of the time. Even when it’s not outright propaganda, the view we have of the past is distorted at best.
Good point, with the qualifier that many people (including professional philosophers) presently find themselves unable to wrap their heads around the idea that they have no non-material consciousness. The “argument from absurdity” against materialism is alive and kicking.
No, they didn’t. Superficial research indicates that serious materialism goes back to at least the Enlightenment in the 18th century. And the 20th century? That’s not even plausible.
And of course, de La Mettrie was himself extending what Descartes argued a century before him about animals. So the serious doubt was there even in the 17th century, though still with a careful “But maybe humans are special (wink wink nudge nudge at the Catholic church)”.
Both also handily take care of the notion that “In the 19th century, everyone knew that life was on a different order than mere matter”; yeah, it was the mainstream view of the British science establishment, Lord Kelvin being a prominent figure… but serious mechanistic view of life predates his offense by at least two centuries. That was still a time when it wasn’t considered particularly controversial that science is different in different countries. French scientists were on board with the philosophical arguments; and heck, Leuwenhoek did most of his work in the 17th century too. We can learn from Kelvin’s arrogance and indignity, but let’s not forget that science took a lot of steps back thanks to politics, religion and someone simply declaring “people in the past were stupid”. That doesn’t mean we should follow the ideas of “the Ancients knew everything best” of course. Reverse stupidity and all that.
And as for Newton… we know now that he was wrong, don’t we? There are no magical influences over distance. Everything affecting anything else in the universe must send something material to propagate that influence. Not to mention that the claim “everyone knew that real scientific physics only permitted a body to act upon another body through direct contact” doesn’t hold water anyway—Thales described the magnetic properties of lodestones in 6th century BC; people were well aware that influences can somehow propagate through “empty” space. Another example would be when people first realized that lightning and thunder are two aspects of literally the same thing, each arriving to us at different time due to different propagation speed. Newton was rightly dismissed for his mystical beliefs—but the things that actually worked… worked. That’s all the reason the learned people needed to believe them (while still being free to believe or dismiss alchemy, astrology and any other silly things Newton believed in).
Really, we should be wary of saying stuff like “In year X, everyone knew Y”. It tends to turn out rather silly most of the time. Even when it’s not outright propaganda, the view we have of the past is distorted at best.
Good point, with the qualifier that many people (including professional philosophers) presently find themselves unable to wrap their heads around the idea that they have no non-material consciousness. The “argument from absurdity” against materialism is alive and kicking.