Central-State Materialism

Abstract

Some terms get their meaning by reference to the effects produced by what the terms denote. Take “poison”, for example. No one understands what a poison is if he doesn’t understand that drinking it is not a good idea. It is in terms of its deleterious effects upon human or animal health that we express what “poison” means. There is a conceptual connection between poisons and ill-health. Yet talk about poisons is not just talk about ill-health. It is talk about substances which can play a causal role in ill-health. A poisonous substance will, if swallowed in large enough doses, without any inhibitor, by a person who takes neither a neutralizer nor an emetic, and provided his metabolism is typical, adversely affect his health.