1. Learning objective: To understand what is meant by epiphenomenalism and issues with it. epiphenomenalist dualism Causal redundancy

2. You need Lacewing book Handout from last lesson

3. Recap What do interactionist dualists say? What was the 1 st empirical criticism? What was the second?

4. Discuss Does the mind cause physical events? (i.e. do the objections for interactionist dualism succeed?) Does the mind cause mental events (e.g. thoughts, feelings, dreams)?

5. What is it? Epiphenomenon = a by product. An effect of a process but with no causal influence. The mind does not cause any physical events or mental ones. Rather, mental events (e.g. thoughts) are all caused by something physical (e.g. brain). (Rare for substance dualists to hold this position – normally they say mental events cause other mental events as the mind is ontologically independent of the body. We come back to this when we look at property dualism)

7. Draw your own diagram to show the difference between interactionist dualism and epiphenomenalist dualism

8. In pairs try to come up with some objections to epiphenomenalism ( the mind doesn’t cause anything) Clues: Intuition Can I know my own mind? Introspection What about making choices? How do I tell I am in pain? If you are struggling – read the rest of your sheet from last lesson

9. 5 mark question (10 minutes) Outline and explain two challenges to epiphenomenalist dualism 5A full, clear and precise explanation. The student make logical links between precisely identified points with no redundancy 4A clear explanation, with logical links, but some imprecision/redundancy 3The substantive content of the explanation is present and there is an attempt at logical linking. But the explanation is not full and/or precise 2One or two relevant points made, but not precisely. The logical is unclear 1Fragmented points, with no logical structure 0Nothing written worthy of credit

10. Peer assessment What bracket does the answer fall in? Give your partner a mark and a justification for that mark. You could write a WWW and EBI.