Does Panpsychism Explain Mental Causation?
Erkenntnis: An International Journal of Scientific Philosophy May 5, 2024 Umut Baysan
Russellian panpsychism, a version of panpsychism that combines mental and physical properties at a fundamental level, is often claimed to be superior to other non-physicalist theories because it can integrate consciousness into the causal order and explain mental causation. This paper argues that this claimed superiority is illusory. On one interpretation, the explanation offered does not address the actual phenomenon at stake in the mental causation debate. On another, it addresses the right phenomenon but competing accounts can provide analogous explanations without the counterintuitive commitments of panpsychism. Thus, explaining mental causation does not give Russellian panpsychism an advantage.