Mental Causation

by Harbecke, Jens

• ISBN13: 9783938793947
• ISBN10: 3938793945
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-28
• Publisher: Ontos Verlag

Summary

This work systematically investigates a range of solutions forthe philosophical problem of mental causation. The premisesconstituting the problem are analyzed, then a survey is developedof the most popular theories on mental causation. Harbeckedemonstrates why most of these canonical solutions must beconsidered deficient. In a third part, the "new compatibilist’s"approach to mental causation is explored, which is characterizedby assertion of a non-identity-but-non-distinctness principle.The last part offers an alternative solution to the problem. Onthe basis of a certain set of counterfactual conditionals, which arejointly taken to provide a definition of "causal proportionality"that improves the existing definitions, it is shown that a specific,and hitherto widely neglected, version of causal overdeterminationismmust be considered the most successful solution tothe problem.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Problem of Mental Causation: premises and central principles

Canonical solutions to the Problem

New compatibilism and mental causation

Open solutions

Bibliography

Index

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