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    Epiphenomenalism is implausible — Carmelics
    Home/Consciousness & Mind
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    Epiphenomenalism is implausible

    Consciousness & Mind
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Huxley's 'steam whistle' analogy shows that systematic correlation between mental states and behavior is fully explicable without causal efficacy of consciousness.
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    • 2.Neural correlates of consciousness studies (Crick & Koch) demonstrate that all behavioral outputs are fully determined by physical brain processes prior to conscious awareness.
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    • 3.If physical processes causally sufficient for behavior already exist, positing additional mental causation violates the causal closure of physics and generates overdetermination.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Libet's experiments showing neural readiness potentials precede conscious intentions by ~550ms entail that consciousness tracks rather than initiates behavioral decisions.
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    • 2.A theory that aligns with empirical neuroscience findings on the temporal sequence of neural and conscious events is more scientifically credible than one that contradicts them.
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    • 3.The counterintuitiveness of denying mental causation is itself explicable as an illusion of control documented in Wegner's 'The Illusion of Conscious Will' (2002).
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Epiphenomenalism entails that pains, visual sensations, and conscious understanding have nothing directly to do with how a person responds behaviorally
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    • 2.It is counterintuitive to deny that a pain caused by being hit influences one's response, that visual sensation of a lion influences one's flight response, or that conscious understanding influences one's reaction to an argument
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    Consciousness & Mind

    Related

    A theory that aligns with empirical neuroscience findings on the temporal sequen...Epiphenomenalism entails that pains, visual sensations, and conscious understand...Huxley's 'steam whistle' analogy shows that systematic correlation between menta...If physical processes causally sufficient for behavior already exist, positing a...
    +4 moreShow less
    It is counterintuitive to deny that a pain caused by being hit influences one's ...Libet's experiments showing neural readiness potentials precede conscious intent...Neural correlates of consciousness studies (Crick & Koch) demonstrate that all b...The counterintuitiveness of denying mental causation is itself explicable as an ...

    Similar

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: dualism
    View source passageHide passage
    A crisis in the history of dualism came, however, with the growing popularity of mechanism in science in the nineteenth century. According to the mechanist, the world is, as it would now be expressed, ‘closed under physics’. This means that everything that happens follows from and is in accord with the laws of physics. There is, therefore, no scope for interference in the physical world by the mind in the way that interactionism seems to require. According to the mechanist, the conscious mind is
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit