SAVING ELIMINATIVISM

This paper contests Lynne Rudder Baker's claim to have shown that elim inative materialism is bound to fail on purely conceptual grounds. It is argued that Baker's position depends on knowing that certain develo pments in science cannot occur, and that we cannot know that this is s o. Consequently, the sort of argument Baker provides is question-beggi ng. For similar reasons, the confidence that the proponents of elimina tive materialism have in it is misplaced.