About this topic
Summary | Anomalous monism is the name of Donald Davidson’s theory of the mind body relation. It holds that (1) there can be no strict laws governing mental events qua mental events, but that (2) every event is governed by strict laws of physics. Thus anomalous monism adverts to mental-physical token identity. Critics of anomalous monism argue that while mental events could be causes of physical events they were causes in virtue of the physical properties, thus leaving the mental properties epiphenomenal. |
Key works | Key works about anomalous monism and mental causation include the articles by Davidson wherein the theory is expounded, including Mental Events; Psychology as Philosophy; and Actions, Reasons and Causes. Key works in the epiphenomenalist criticism of anomalous monism are Kim's The Myth of Non-Reductive Materialism, and Can Supervenience and 'Non-strict Laws' Save Anomalous Monism? as well as McLaughlin's On Davidsons's Response to the Charge of Epiphenomenalism. |
Introductions | Anomalous Monism by Julie Yoo in the Oxford Handbook to Philosophy of Mind. Anomalous Monism by Steven Yalowitz in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. |
Show all references
Related categories
Siblings:
- Causal Overdetermination (150)
- Causal Closure of the Physical (169)
- Downward Causation (231)
- Epiphenomenalism (204)
- Explanatory Role of Content (126)
- Externalism and Mental Causation (66)
- Functionalism and Mental Causation (26)
- Psychological Explanation (582)
- Reasons and Causes (679)
- Supervenient Causation (97)
- The Exclusion Problem (688)
- The Function of Consciousness (88)
- Mental Causation, Misc (392)
- Anomalous Monism (212)
Jobs in this area
Visiting faculty position in Philosophy Carnegie Mellon University: Qatar: Q-General Education
Assistant/Associate Professor of Philosophy
Faculty positions in American religion and politics
Jobs from PhilJobs
114 found
Order:
1 filter applied
|
Off-campus access
Using PhilPapers from home?
Create an account to enable off-campus access through your institution's proxy server. Monitor this page
Be alerted of all new items appearing on this page. Choose how you want to monitor it:
Editorial team
General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario) David Chalmers (ANU, NYU) Area Editors: David Bourget Gwen Bradford Berit Brogaard Margaret Cameron David Chalmers James Chase Rafael De Clercq Ezio Di Nucci Barry Hallen Hans Halvorson Jonathan Ichikawa Michelle Kosch Øystein Linnebo JeeLoo Liu Paul Livingston Brandon Look Manolo Martínez Matthew McGrath Michiru Nagatsu Susana Nuccetelli Giuseppe Primiero Jack Alan Reynolds Darrell P. Rowbottom Aleksandra Samonek Constantine Sandis Howard Sankey Jonathan Schaffer Thomas Senor Robin Smith Daniel Star Jussi Suikkanen Lynne Tirrell Aness Kim Webster Other editors Contact us Learn more about PhilPapers |