Explanatory Exclusion, Over-Determination, and the Mind-Body Problem
- Jaakko Hintikka (coord.)
- Robert Cummings Neville (coord.)
- Ernest Sosa (coord.)
- Alan M. Olson (coord.)
- Stephen Dawson (coord.)
Verlag: Bowling Green State University
ISBN: 9781889680132
Datum der Publikation: 2001
Titel des Bandes: Philosophy of Mind
Ausgabe: 9
Seiten: 13-21
Art: Buch-Kapitel
Zusammenfassung
Taking into account the difficulties that all attempts at a solution of the problem of causal-explanatory exclusion have experienced, we analyze in this paper the chances that mind-body causation is a case of overdetermination, a line of attack that has scarcely been explored. Our conclusion is that claiming that behaviors are causally overdetermined cannot solve the problem of causal-explanatory exclusion. The reason is the problem of massive coincidence, that can only be avoided by establishing a relation between mind and body; that is, by denying overdetermination. The only way to defend that mind-body causation is a case of overdetermination would be by denying any modal force whatever to the principle of the causal closure of the physical, and this is a claim we would not like to reject.