The Causal Exclusion Problem

The Causal Exclusion Problem

Author: Dwayne Moore

Publisher: American University Studies

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781433122675

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In The Causal Exclusion Problem, the popular strategy of abandoning any one of the principles constituting the causal exclusion problem is considered, but ultimately rejected. The metaphysical foundations undergirding the causal exclusion problem are then explored, revealing that the causal exclusion problem cannot be dislodged by undermining its metaphysical foundations - as some are in the habit of doing. Finally, the significant difficulties associated with the bevy of contemporary nonreductive solutions, from supervenience to emergentism, are expanded upon. While conducting this survey of contemporary options, however, two novel approaches are introduced, both of which may resolve the causal exclusion problem from within a nonreductive physicalist paradigm. The Causal Exclusion Problem, which relentlessly motivates the vexing causal exclusion problem and exhaustively surveys its metaphysical assumptions and contemporary responses, is ideal for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course in the philosophy of mind.


Mental Causation

Mental Causation

Author: Thomas Kroedel

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1108487149

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Presents a comprehensive account of how the mind causes things to happen in the physical world. This book is also available as Open Access.


Mental Causation and Ontology

Mental Causation and Ontology

Author: S. C. Gibb

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2013-03-21

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0199603774

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This book demonstrates the importance of ontology for a central debate in philosophy of mind. Mental causation seems an obvious aspect of the world. But it is hard to understand how it can happen unless we get clear about what the entities involved in the process are. An international team of contributors presents new work on this problem.


Mind in a Physical World

Mind in a Physical World

Author: Jaegwon Kim

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9780262611534

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This book, based on Jaegwon Kim's 1996 Townsend Lectures, presents the philosopher's current views on a variety of issues in the metaphysics of the mind--in particular, the mind-body problem, mental causation, and reductionism. This book, based on Jaegwon Kim's 1996 Townsend Lectures, presents the philosopher's current views on a variety of issues in the metaphysics of the mind--in particular, the mind-body problem, mental causation, and reductionism. Kim construes the mind-body problem as that of finding a place for the mind in a world that is fundamentally physical. Among other points, he redefines the roles of supervenience and emergence in the discussion of the mind-body problem. Arguing that various contemporary accounts of mental causation are inadequate, he offers his own partially reductionist solution on the basis of a novel model of reduction. Retaining the informal tone of the lecture format, the book is clear yet sophisticated.


Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation

Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation

Author: Michele Paolini Paoletti

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1317271440

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Downward causation plays a fundamental role in many theories of metaphysics and philosophy of mind. It is strictly connected with many topics in philosophy, including but not limited to: emergence, mental causation, the nature of causation, the nature of causal powers and dispositions, laws of nature, and the possibility of ontological and epistemic reductions. Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation brings together experts from different fields—including William Bechtel, Stewart Clark and Tom Lancaster, Carl Gillett, John Heil, Robin F. Hendry, Max Kistler, Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum —who delve into classic and unexplored lines of philosophical inquiry related to downward causation. It critically assesses the possibility of downward causation given different ontological assumptions and explores the connection between downward causation and the metaphysics of causation and dispositions. Finally, it presents different cases of downward causation in empirical fields such as physics, chemistry, biology and the neurosciences. This volume is both a useful introduction and a collection of original contributions on this fascinating and hotly debated philosophical topic.


Free Will, Causality, and Neuroscience

Free Will, Causality, and Neuroscience

Author: Bernard Feltz

Publisher: Brill

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789004372917

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This book aims to show that recent developments in neuroscience permit a defense of free will. Through language, human beings can escape strict biological determinism.


Physicalism Deconstructed

Physicalism Deconstructed

Author: Kevin Morris

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1108472168

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Provides a philosophical and historical critique of contemporary conceptions of physicalism, especially non-reductive, levels-based approaches to physicalist metaphysics. Challenging assumptions about the mind-body problem, this accessible book will interest scholars working in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science.


Physical Realization

Physical Realization

Author: Sydney Shoemaker

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-07-19

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 0199214395

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How can physicalism be true? How can all facts about the world be constituted by facts about the distribution in the world of physical properties? Shoemaker's answer to this question involves showing how the mental properties of a person can be 'realised' in the physical properties of that person.


Physicalism and Mental Causation

Physicalism and Mental Causation

Author: Sven Walter

Publisher: Andrews UK Limited

Published: 2015-11-04

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1845405838

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Physicalism—the thesis that everything there is in the world, including our minds, is constituted by basic physical entities—has dominated the philosophy of mind during the last few decades. But although the conceptual foundations of the physicalist agenda—including a proper explication of notions such as ‘causation', ‘determination', ‘realization’ or even ‘physicalism’ itself—must be settled before more specific problems (e.g. the problems of mental causation and human agency) can be satisfactorily addressed, a comprehensive philosophical reflection on the relationships between the various key concepts of the debate on physicalism is yet missing. This book presents a range of essays on the conceptual foundations of physicalism, mental causation and human agency, written by established and leading authors in the field.