Essay On Epiphenomenalism

While traditional dualists hold that mind and body causally interact and influence one another, epiphenomenalists claim that causal interaction only takes place from body to mind. In that case, while John would still feel pain by placing his hand on the hot stove, epiphenomenalists would deny that pain caused John to take his hand off the hot stove. Rather, what made John lift his hand were the neurophysiological processes that caused him pain.

In this regard, without denying the existence of mental states and consciousness, epiphenomenalism believes that all experiences, thoughts and actions are determined by physical events. “As smoke from a machine seems to be, [mental states are] mere side effects making no difference to the course of nature” (Campbell & Smith, 1993). By stating that mental events are causally inert byproducts of certain physical processes, epiphenomenalism almost …show more content…
For example, the claim that bodies of human beings are alike in their construction and so most likely feel the same emotions when their bodies are affected by the same external source is no more plausible then the claim that machines who are programmed to think, plan and reason have minds of their own. For Rosenthal (2000), epiphenomenalism could make the claim that since mental events correlate with physical events as a matter of causal necessity, beings with a similar neurophysiological make-up should experience a similar mental life. Yet, this explanation becomes less likely considering that “we have little idea of why neurophysiological states should be accompanied by mental states at all” (McLaughlin et. al., 2009, p. 89). Why is it that the brain that causes a body to sit down and read also causes it to think? The inference that similar neurophysiological causes cause similar mental affects is no less reliable than the machine analogy, and raises questions as to how physical processes can give rise to conscious