Mental Causation for Mind-Body Dualists

Abstract

Interactive dualism is notorious for supporting genuine and autonomous mental causation that is allegedly impossible for its confliction with basic principles of physics. The purpose of this essay is to show the invalidity of this commonplace view, by arguing to the contrary in three different steps. First, I will deal with the objection about the non-scientific character of interactive dualism, as it is conceived of in present-day philosophy of mind. Second, I will illustrate and critically examine three contemporary models of dualistically understood mental causation. Finally, I will summarise the chief assumptions made in these models and try to lay down my own proposal.