物理主義（physicalism），還有相形的唯物主義（materialism）與自然主義（naturalism），可謂現代哲學的基礎，相關的哲學範疇包括形而上學、科學哲學、語言哲學、心智哲學、宗教哲學、後設倫理學，甚至政治哲學等等。就算是不接受這幾個理論的哲學家，也不得不關注這些理論，並大花唇舌試圖說明自己與它們的分歧。然而，一個根本的問題是，到底甚麼是物理主義（或唯物主義與自然主義）？當一位哲學家說，「道德倫理是物理性的」、「道德倫理是非物理性的」、「意識是物理性的」、「意識是非物理性的」、「全宇宙都是物理性的」、「全宇宙有些事物是非物理性的」，她到底在表達些甚麼概念？令人意外的，不同哲學家提出的回應差異極大，甚至互相矛盾。本課程將會引領學生釐清物理主義的概念。

Physicalism—and similar doctrines like materialism and naturalism—are the basis of contemporary philosophy, and are applied to many philosophical areas, including metaphysics, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of religion, metaethics, and even political philosophy, and so on. Even non-physicalists and non-naturalists discuss these doctrines in depth and made significant efforts to elaborate their disagreements with them. But what at all is physicalism (or naturalism or materialism)? When the philosopher says, ‘morality is physical’, ‘morality is non-physical’, ‘consciousness is physical’, ‘consciousness is non-physical’, ‘the whole universe is physical’, or ‘there are non-physical entities in the universe’, what does she actually mean? Surprisingly, philosophers provide several distinct and conflicting responses to the question. This course will inquire into conceptions of physicalism.