Nonreductive Physicalism and Mental Causation

Paper Summary:

This paper begins by exploring different theories of mind, including dualism, reductivism, and nonreductive physicalism. It then summarizes the mental causation problem as expressed by Jaegwon Kim. Thereafter, the paper puts forth the argument that nonreductive physicalism gives rise to the very problem of mental causation that physicalism was intended to solve in the first place. The paper explores the contemporary nonreductivist difficulties related to mental causation, and the standard solution that nonreductivists have proposed to overcome these difficulties.

Table of Contents:
Dualism vs. Physicalism
Nonreductivism and Physical Realization
The Problem of Mental Causation
The Assumptions and Kim's Causal Exclusion Argument
The Causal Exclusion Argument and the Nonreductivist Responses
Conclusion
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"To sum up everything so far, Descartes' difficulties in explaining the notion of mental causation arose from his ontological definitions of the mental and the physical: the duality of mental and material substances. And, it seems that the current mainstream physicalism, the "non-reductive physicalism", runs into parallel difficulties on account of its commitments to the duality of mental and physical properties. Non-reductive physicalism argues that mental states are not identical with particular physical states. Then, the problem for this position is: are the mental properties responsible for their effects in the physical world? This raises a dilemma: if the mental properties are responsible for the effects, then either the causal closure of the physical domain is violated or the effects are overdetermined. And, neither of these is acceptable to non-reductive physicalists. On the other hand, if the mental properties of the cause are not responsible for its effects, then epiphenomalism is true: the mental makes no causal difference."

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