Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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Disproportional mental causation

Justin Tiehen

pp. 375-391

Abstract

In this paper I do three things. First, I argue that Stephen Yablo’s influential account of mental causation is susceptible to counterexamples involving what I call disproportional mental causation. Second, I argue that similar counterexamples can be generated for any alternative account of mental causation that is like Yablo’s in that it takes mental states and their physical realizers to causally compete. Third, I show that there are alternative nonreductive approaches to mental causation which reject the idea of causal competition, and which thus are able to allow for disproportional mental causation. This, I argue, is a significant advantage for such noncompetitive accounts.

Publication details

Published in:

(2011) Synthese 182 (3).

Pages: 375-391

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-010-9749-8

Full citation:

Tiehen Justin (2011) „Disproportional mental causation“. Synthese 182 (3), 375–391.