Day 8: Basic Beliefs Challenge

Claim:

Mental causation, though genuine, is constrained by the conditions of its embodiment.

Expansion:

Mental states do not emerge from a physical system only to float free of it. They remain embodied within that system, continually subject to its shifting conditions, which impose deep constraints on experience, expression, and causation. These constraints shape every mental state but are most decisive in determining the scope of one’s causal powers and limiting the range of possible actions. Thus, the validity of mental causation does not entail causal powers exempt from the limits of embodiment. Put simply: if there is subjective willing and causation, it is never free of constraint.

This statement is the counterpart to yesterday’s post affirming that mental causation is genuine. Here, the emphasis shifts to explicitly recognizing that, while valid, mental causation operates only within—and is bounded by—the system in which it is embodied.

Counter Claim:

We are, again, at the edge of the causal exclusion argument. If we are saying that mental causation is always constrained by the conditions of the system it’s embodied in, why split hairs trying to defend its causative role? Are we trying too hard? Why not just admit that what appears as causation is a story or epiphenomenal appearance?