Nicola Simonetti

Supervenience, Reductionism and Mirror Neurons System: the Metaphysical Picture of the World and Its Outcomes on Our View for Mind, Consciousness and Free Will Nicola Simonetti

[Psychophysical Supervenience] «The mental supervenes on the physical in that any two things exactly alike in all physical properties cannot differ in respect of mental properties» (Kim, 1996). Kim endorses a reductive supervenience, according to which mental causation would be a mere illusion. I consider Kim?s distinction between ?levels? (micro/macro) and ?orders? (physical/mental) very interesting and important from a logical and metaphysical point of view to clarify the causal role of some mental properties and notably consciousness (Kim, 1998; 2006). About mind/body problem I endorse the theories of ontological monism and epistemological dualism. The discovery of the mirror neurons system (MNS) and its way of working is a good example to understand the previous theories. According to Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia (2006), it seems that perception, understanding and action are grouped together into a unified mechanism, according to which «the brain that acts is also and above all a brain that understands» (Ib., p.3). Finally, I try to show the theoretical concordance of this discovery with the supervenience reductive theory of mind claimed by Kim (1993, 1996, 1998, 2005).