On the Metaphysics of Mental Causation
Abstract
In a series of recent papers, Cynthia MacDonald and Graham MacDonald offer a resolution
to the twin problems of mental causation and mental causal relevance. They argue that
the problem of mental causation is soluble via token monism – mental events are causally
efficacious physical events. At the same time, the problem of mental causal relevance is
solved by combining this causally efficacious mental property instance with the systematic
co-variation between distinct mental properties of the cause and the action-theoretic
properties of the effect in question. In this paper we argue that the solution offered by Mac-
Donald and MacDonald faces significant difficulties in resolving both of the twin problems
of mental causation and mental causal relevance.