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3 - Mental causation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2009

E. J. Lowe
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

It is widely supposed that dualist theories of the mind-body relation face an intractable difficulty concerning psychophysical causation – even if it is not always agreed what, precisely, the nature of the difficulty is. Perhaps two main, if vague, areas of concern can be identified, one more serious than the other. The first is that dualism, in allegedly representing the mind as utterly distinct from and unlike anything physical, has a problem in rendering intelligible any kind of causal nexus between the two domains. But the proper response to this, first given by Hume, is to deny that we should expect any causal nexus to be ‘intelligible’ in the sense in which dualism allegedly fails to represent psychophysical causation as being. One does not have to adopt a ‘Humean’ theory of causation – the ‘regularity’ or ‘constant conjunction’ theory – to avail oneself of this response (and, incidentally, it doesn't presently concern me whether Hume himself was a ‘Humean’ in this sense). All one has to draw from Hume is the idea that causal relations are not, in general, knowable a priori, like logicomathematical relations. Anyway, I have no intention of discussing further this (to my mind) spurious aspect of the supposed problem that psychophysical causation poses for the dualist. The more serious area of concern is created by the suspicion that dualist views of the mind-body relation – and certainly those that are interactionist – are somehow at odds with the findings of modern physical science: not only physiology and neurology, but also, more fundamentally, physics itself.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

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  • Mental causation
  • E. J. Lowe, University of Durham
  • Book: Subjects of Experience
  • Online publication: 22 October 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511598005.004
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  • Mental causation
  • E. J. Lowe, University of Durham
  • Book: Subjects of Experience
  • Online publication: 22 October 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511598005.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Mental causation
  • E. J. Lowe, University of Durham
  • Book: Subjects of Experience
  • Online publication: 22 October 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511598005.004
Available formats
×