Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Epiphenomenalism, philosophy of mind: theories that conceive the mind as a side effect of brain processes, the mind itself does not cause any effects. See also supervenience, identity theory, mind, brain, materialism, reductionism, dualism, property dualism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Colin McGinn on Epiphenomenalism - Dictionary of Arguments
I 214 Epiphenomenalism/consciousness: Now, a living thing with the ability to think cannot help also thinking other things than were originally intended. Intelligence expands and extends to areas where it will bring us no benefit. >Consciousness. McGinnVsEpiphenomenalism we should find the theory of the by-product much more surprising than we do and also more enigmatic. It’s really amazing and just quite unforeseeable that reason proves to be able to do the things that it is actually capable of. ((s) Reason makes our lives so complicated) ... that it is a mystery why the genes have not installed a limitation. I 216 By-product/Epiphenomenon/McGinn: in order to take the relevant theory seriously we would have to be able to see a conceptual or theoretical continuity between the problems of understanding that affect the lives of flying or swimming creatures or living beings in underground passages, and the problems of our philosophy. McGinnVsEpiphenomenalism: merely gesturing as long as it is not shown why it should that human reason might extend also in this direction._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
McGinn I Colin McGinn Problems in Philosophy. The Limits of Inquiry, Cambridge/MA 1993 German Edition: Die Grenzen vernünftigen Fragens Stuttgart 1996 McGinn II C. McGinn The Mysteriouy Flame. Conscious Minds in a Material World, New York 1999 German Edition: Wie kommt der Geist in die Materie? München 2001 |
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> Counter arguments against McGinn
> Counter arguments in relation to Epiphenomenalism
