Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Philosophers Index Abstract

The concept of "supervenience¹" is used to resolve three problems about causal relations involving mental events. These problems are:-

(1) the problem of pre-emption,
(2) the problem of spurious overdetermination, and
(3) the problem of spurious partial cause.

The relation of supervenience² between families of properties or events is explained, and causal connections among supervenient events are explained in terms of the causal connections between the events on which they supervene³. The thesis that mental events are supervenient upon physical events is formulated, and defended, in part on the model of the global supervenience⁴ of macro-properties and processes on their micro-counterparts. Similarities and differences between the supervenience⁵ thesis concerning the mental and classical epiphenomenalism are noted and discussed.