A dualist theory of experience.
Philosophical Studies 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s11098-025-02290-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Causal closure Mental causation Non-reductive functionalism Organizational invariance Overdetermination Preemption Psychophysical laws Consciousness theory Mind-body dualism Philosophical interactionism |
| Key points | Proposes that delegatory dualism satisfies five stringent constraints for a dualist theory of experience, which existing dualist theories fail to meet. |
Abstract
Dualism holds that experiences somehow arise from physical states, despite being neither identical with nor grounded in such states. This paper motivates a stringent set of constraints on constructing a dualist theory of experience. To meet the constraints, a dualist theory must: (1) construe experiences as causes of physical effects, (2) ensure that experiences do not cause observable violations of the causal closure of the physical domain, (3) avoid overdetermination, (4) specify a set of psychophysical laws that yield experiences as a function of physical states, and (5) ensure that functional duplication preserves phenomenology. After motivating these constraints and explaining why existing dualist theories satisfy only some of them, I construct a dualist theory that satisfies all of them. On the resulting theory-which I call delegatory dualism-experiences uphold causal responsibilities "delegated" to them by physical states.