J. J. C. Smart

J. J. C. Smart was a British-born Australian philosopher who taught at Adelaide, La Trobe University and the Australian National University. His paper "Sensations and Brain Processes" (1959) developed and defended the mind–brain identity theory, arguing that sensations are brain processes, much as lightning is an electrical discharge. He was also a leading defender of act utilitarianism and of a scientific realism that treated time tenselessly.

Key ideas

• Sensations are identical with brain processes; the identity is contingent and discovered empirically, not known from the meaning of words.
• Sensation reports can be analysed in topic-neutral terms, which leaves room for their being physical.
• Simplicity counts against leaving sensations as unexplained 'nomological danglers' outside physical science.
• Act utilitarianism, judging each act by its consequences, is the most defensible ethical theory.

Major works

• "Sensations and Brain Processes" (1959, Philosophical Review)
• "An Outline of a System of Utilitarian Ethics" (1961)
• Philosophy and Scientific Realism (1963)
• Utilitarianism: For and Against (1973, with Bernard Williams)

In the conversation

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