Physical Determinability

Gibb, S.C.

Physical Determinability

Gibb, S.C.

Authors

Professor Sophie Gibb s.c.gibb@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

I defend a dualist model of psychophysical causal relevance, according to which mental events are not causes in the physical domain, but are causally relevant in this domain because they enable — or, in other words, provide the appropriate structure for — physical events to be caused. More specifically, I defend the claim that mental events are ‘double preventers’ within the physical domain, where double preventers are a type of enabling event. The distinction that I make between causes and enabling events and the dualist model of psychophysical causal relevance that I defend has emerged from my acceptance of the powers theory of causation. In this paper, I explore how this dualist model of psychophysical causal relevance offers a response to Papineau’s defence of the causal completeness principle via the conservation laws.

Citation

Gibb, S. (2015). Physical Determinability. Humana.mente, 29, 69-90

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Jan 22, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Jun 5, 2015
Journal	Humana.mente : journal of philosophical studies.
Publisher	Department of Philosophy, University of Florence
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	29
Pages	69-90
Publisher URL	http://www.humanamente.eu/index.php/55