Dependencies, Connections, and Other Relations

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxiii

   PDF

2. Ontology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages xxxv-xxxv

      PDF

   2. Particulars, Properties, and Relations

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 1-13

   3. Physicalism

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 15-23

   4. A Layered World

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 25-40

3. Causality

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 41-42

      PDF

   2. A Duality in the Concept of Causality

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 43-51

   3. Causal Dependence

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 53-71

   4. Causal Connection

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 73-86

   5. Unifying Dependence and Connection

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 87-100

   6. Causation and Natural Law

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 101-113

   7. The Problem of Causal Relata

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 115-123

   8. Getting Events Wrong

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 125-136

   9. Getting Events Right

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 137-146

   10. Relations as Causal Relata

       • Wim De Muijnck

       Pages 147-154

   11. Causal Efficacy

       • Wim De Muijnck

       Pages 155-168

   12. Supervenient Causation

       • Wim De Muijnck

       Pages 169-179

4. Mind

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-182

      PDF

   2. The Concept of Mind

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 183-198

   3. Against the Computational Theory

      • Wim De Muijnck

      Pages 199-210

The text before you is a study ofthe problematic issue ofmental causation: causation by minds. On hearing the expression 'mental causation,' you may at first think ofsomething like bending spoons by 'psychic' powers. But no, we are dealing here with something much more puzzling: doing things for reasons, i. e. , what we call agency. Psychic spoon-bending would be a fairly straightforward issue. You just exert some psychic force and bend a spoon, just like you might bend it by hand, i. e. , by physical force. The only trouble here is that psychic forces may not be in fact available '. But now you fetch an umbrella because you expect that it will rain. How does that work? Some­ how, it seems, you let an expectation move your limbs. But aren't your limbs already moved by nerve impulses and muscle contractions? And are expecta­ tions the proper kind ofitems to move things around? Mental causation is an issue that is at the heart ofthe mind-body problem, the problem of making it clear how minded creatures such as we are possi­ ble, and what our mindedness consists in. Unlike psychic spoon-bending, mental causation happens every day. At least, pretty much of what we take for granted about ourselves can only be right when mental causation really happens.

• 15th century
• concept
• corpus
• history of literature
• issue
• metaphysics
• mind
• natural law
• ontology
• philosophy
• philosophy of mind
• physics
• reason
• subject
• will

• Tilburg and Nijmegen University, The Netherlands

  Wim Muijnck

Policies and ethics