Högskolan i Skövde

his.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-cv
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Quantum Theory and the Place of Mind in the Causal Order of Things
University of Skövde, School of Bioscience. University of Skövde, The Systems Biology Research Centre. Department of Philosophy, History and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. (Kognitiv neurovetenskap och filosofi, Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7838-8293
2019 (English)In: Quanta and Mind: Essays on the Connection between Quantum Mechanics and the Consciousness / [ed] J. Acacio de Barros, Carlos Montemayor, Springer, 2019, p. 163-171Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The received view in physicalist philosophy of mind assumes that causation can only take place at the physical domain and that the physical domain is causally closed. It is often thought that this leaves no room for mental states qua mental to have a causal influence upon the physical domain, leading to epiphenomenalism and the problem of mental causation. However, in recent philosophy of causation there has been growing interest in a line of thought that can be called causal antifundamentalism: causal notions cannot play a role in physics, because the fundamental laws of physics are radically different from causal laws. Causal anti-fundamentalism seems to challenge the received view in physicalist philosophy of mind and thus raises the possibility of there being genuine mental causation after all. This paper argues that while causal anti-fundamentalism provides a possible route to mental causation, we have reasons to think that it is incorrect. Does this mean that we have to accept the received view and give up the hope of genuine mental causation? I will suggest that the ontological interpretation of quantum theory provides us both with a view about the nature of causality in fundamental physics, as well as a view how genuine mental causation can be compatible with our fundamental (quantum) physical ontology.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2019. p. 163-171
Series
Synthese Library (Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science), ISSN 0166-6991, E-ISSN 2542-8292 ; 414
Keywords [en]
causal anti-fundamentalism, mental causation, causal closure, causality, Bohm theory, Bohmian mechanics, epiphenomenalism
National Category
Philosophy Other Physics Topics
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-17725DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-21908-6_14ISBN: 978-3-030-21907-9 (print)ISBN: 978-3-030-21908-6 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-17725DiVA, id: diva2:1354926
Available from: 2019-09-26 Created: 2019-09-26 Last updated: 2025-09-29Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(185 kB)181 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 185 kBChecksum SHA-512
355c3dc796b46ec27a265fd06f14b1253e13a9509744d95b27dccfea3ccc2fd89a98caebec59b11831c7600f58d3434d597ba2e3afdb2925b42c12d085a78736
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Pylkkänen, Paavo

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Pylkkänen, Paavo
By organisation
School of BioscienceThe Systems Biology Research Centre
PhilosophyOther Physics Topics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 182 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 572 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-cv
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf