The widely held philosophical position called “physicalism” has been described and defended in a recent book by Jaegwon Kim. The physicalist position claims that the world is basically purely physical. However, “physical” is interpreted in a way predicated, in effect, upon certain properties of classical physics that are contradicted by the precepts of orthodox quantum physics. Kim’s arguments reveal two horns of a dilemma that the physicalist is forced to face as a consequence of accepting this classical notion of “physical”. Kim admits that neither of the two options, “epiphenomenalism” or “reduction”, is very palatable, but he finds a compromise that he deems acceptable.
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Stapp, H.P. (2009). Physicalism Versus Quantum Mechanics. In: Stapp, H.P. (eds) Mind, Matter and Quantum Mechanics. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89654-8_13
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