Jaegwon Kim

Jaegwon Kim (September 12, 1934 – November 27, 2019) was a Korean-American philosopher. He was an emeritus professor of philosophy at Brown University and also taught at several other leading American universities. Kim is best known for his contributions to the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, action theory, epistemology, and philosophy of science. His work significantly addressed issues such as mental causation, the mind-body problem, and the metaphysics of supervenience and events. Kim challenged traditional Cartesian metaphysics and critically examined the extent to which strict physicalism could account for consciousness and subjective experience, particularly qualia. He argued that while intentional mental states might be reducible to neurological processes, phenomenal mental states present a challenge to purely physicalist explanations. Kim's later work defended a form of property dualism, described as 'something near enough' to physicalism. He emphasized the need for naturalistic explanations of the mind, rooted in natural science. Kim's academic career included influential positions and awards, and he served as president of the American Philosophical Association, Central Division. His philosophical approach stressed clarity, rigorous argument, and an aversion to obscurity, influenced by thinkers like Carl Hempel and Roderick Chisholm.