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Mental Causation

Mental Causation is a problem in the philosophy of mind concerned with the causal role of the mind. How does the mind exert causal power over the physical. The problem could be said to have its modern origins with Descartes' mind-body problem. However, today it could be said that the debate takes place squarely within the materialist/physicalist metaphysic. Today's problem is no longer a problem about interacting substances, but rather, how to reconcile two conflicting intuitions:

1. It seems that the mental has real and distinct causal power

2. The physical causal closure thesis insists that all physical events have physical causes

Given these two intuitions, how does one go about addressing the nature of the mental? Is it completely reducible to the physical? Can we draw an identity between mental processes and brain processes? Does something new, "the mental", emerge with new properties distinct from its physical base? Is the mental illusory? Is the mental real but causally impotent (epiphenomenalism)?

The most popular answer to these questions in recent decades has been what is called "non-reductive physicalism" where one affirms both the reality of the mental and the physical causal closure thesis. In recent years, some have contended that the "non-reductive physicalism" position is severely flawed and no longer a viable option.

Other positions on the problem of mental causation include:

1. Identity Theory
2. Functionalism
3. Emergent Dualism
4. Property Dualism
5. Substance Dualism (yes it is still defended)

Web Resources On Mental Causation

Self, Agency And Mental Causation
http://lgxserver.uniba.it/lei/mind/forums/003_0003.htm
Mental Realism

Book Resources On Mental Causation

Mind in a Physical World by Jaegwon Kim
Mental Causation by John Heil and Alfred R. Mele, ed.

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