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Single Idea 4590
[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 2. Interactionism
]
Full Idea
If causal relations boil down to nothing more than regularities (as Hume suggests), then it is a mistake to regard the absence of a mechanism or causal link between mental events and material events as a special problem.
Gist of Idea
If causation is just regularities in events, the interaction of mind and body is not a special problem
Source
John Heil (Philosophy of Mind [1998], Ch.2)
Book Ref
Heil,John: 'Philosophy of Mind' [Routledge 1998], p.30
A Reaction
So critics of Descartes who were baffled by interaction, were actually sniffing Hume's wholesale scepticism about necessary causation. Even so, physical conjunction is more tangible than spiritual conjunction.
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[mind and matter mutually affect one another]:
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24039
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All the emotions seem to involve the body, simultaneously with the feeling
[Aristotle]
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24056
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The soul (or parts of it) is not separable from the body
[Aristotle]
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5695
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Only bodies can touch one another
[Lucretius]
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6683
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The contact of spirit and body is utterly amazing, and incomprehensible
[Augustine]
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3400
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Things must have parts to intermingle
[Gassendi]
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3616
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The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations
[Descartes]
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6153
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Interaction between mental and physical seems to violate the principle of conservation of energy
[Rowlands on Descartes]
|
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3654
|
The pineal gland links soul to body, and unites the two symmetrical sides of the body
[Descartes, by PG]
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6553
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Descartes discussed the interaction problem, and compared it with gravity
[Descartes, by Lycan]
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3469
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Mind and brain don't interact if they are the same
[Searle]
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3409
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Mental substance causation makes physics incomplete
[Kim]
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2446
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Cartesians consider interaction to be a miracle
[Fodor]
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2445
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Semantics v syntax is the interaction problem all over again
[Fodor]
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9293
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Body-spirit interaction ought to result in losses and increases of energy in the material world
[Teichmann]
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3911
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The very concept of a substance denies the possibility of mutual interaction and dependence
[Scruton]
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2409
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Maybe dualist interaction is possible at the quantum level?
[Chalmers]
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2411
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Supervenience makes interaction laws possible
[Chalmers]
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4590
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If causation is just regularities in events, the interaction of mind and body is not a special problem
[Heil]
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