A Limited Defense of Epiphenomenalism

South African Journal of Philosophy 27 (1):40-51 (2008)
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Abstract

The present paper shows that the clearest formulation of J. M. E. McTaggart's antipassage argument, that of D. H. Mellor in _Real Time II, is unsound when its premises are interpreted so that it is valid. This argument need mislead us no longer. The crucial item in the interpretation of the premises is the copula 'is', as in 'E is past'. The copula may be either tensed or tenseless. While this ambiguity of the copula has been noted before, its implications for McTaggart's argument had not been adequately exploited. This paper does that job

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10.4314/sajpem.v27i1.31500

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Steve Tammelleo
University of San Diego

Citations of this work

Rejecting epiphobia.Umut Baysan - 2021 - Synthese 199 (1-2):2773-2791.
Epiphenomenalism.William Robinson - 2003 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

The Illusion of Conscious Will.R. Holton - 2004 - Mind 113 (449):218-221.
Preface by.Daniel Wegner - 2002 - In Daniel M. Wegner (ed.), The Illusion of Conscious Will. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Causal Compatibilism and the Exclusion Problem.Terry Horgan - 2001 - Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 16 (1):95-115.
Knowing epiphenomena.William S. Robinson - 2006 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 13 (1-2):85-100.

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