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The Disturbing Matter of Downward Causation a Study of the Exclusion Argument and Its Causal- Explanatory Presuppositions

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The Disturbing Matter of Downward Causation a Study of the Exclusion Argument and Its Causal- Explanatory Presuppositions The Disturbing Matter of Downward Causation A Study of the Exclusion Argument and its Causal- Explanatory Presuppositions Ph.D. Dissertation Øistein Schmidt Galaaen Program in Philosophy and Humanistic Informatics Faculty of Humanities University of Oslo 2006 © Øistein Schmidt Galaaen, 2007 Series of dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Humanities,University of Oslo No. 299 ISSN 0806-3222 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Cover: Inger Sandved Anfinsen. Printed in Norway: AiT e-dit AS, Oslo, 2007. Produced in co-operation with Unipub AS. The thesis is produced by Unipub AS merely in connection with the thesis defence. Kindly direct all inquiries regarding the thesis to the copyright holder or the unit which grants the doctorate. Unipub AS is owned by The University Foundation for Student Life (SiO) There is no twisted thought without a twisted molecule. – Attributed to neurophysiologist Ralph Gerard Table of Contents Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi 1. Preface.......................................................................................................................... viii 2. Introduction..................................................................................................................... 1 2.1. Downward Causation from Descartes to Jaegwon Kim .......................................... 2 2.2. The Significance of Downward Causation .............................................................. 6 2.3. Exclusion Arguments and Their Presuppositions.................................................. 10 2.4. Aims and Methods: How Should We Approach Downward Causation?.............. 15 2.5. “The Physical” in Downward Causation ............................................................... 21 2.6. Overdetermination and Causal Competition.......................................................... 23 2.6.1. Synopsis of Paper (#1).................................................................................... 24 2.6.2. Synopsis Paper (#2) ........................................................................................ 27 2.7. Causal Closure and Physical Causes of Bodily Movements ................................. 31 2.7.1. Synopsis Paper (#3) ........................................................................................ 32 2.7.2. Synopsis Paper (#4) ........................................................................................ 34 2.8. Concluding Remarks on the Prospects of Exclusion Arguments .......................... 38 3. Paper (#1): Mechanisms Do Not Overdetermine Their Effects.................................... 40 3.1. Introduction............................................................................................................ 40 3.2. Loewer’s Case against Production......................................................................... 43 3.3. Characterizing the Productive View ...................................................................... 45 3.4. First Response to Loewer: Empirical Theories of Causation ................................ 49 3.5. Second Response to Loewer: Mechanisms............................................................ 51 3.6. Conclusions............................................................................................................ 63 4. Paper (#2): Pace Burge: Some Empirical Warrant for Epiphobia ................................ 66 4.1. Introduction. Physicalist Constraints on Causal Relevance in Psychology........... 66 4.2. Burge’s Theory of Causal Explanation and Causal Relevance ............................. 71 4.3. Burge’s Arguments Against Physicalist Constraints on Causal Relevance........... 76 4.3.1. (P1) and the Call for Tight Relations between Mental and Physical Causes.. 77 4.3.2. (P2) and the Call for Mechanisms .................................................................. 79 iv 4.3.3. (P3) and the Call for Locally Supervenient Properties ................................... 81 4.3.4. (P4) and the Call for Psychological Laws....................................................... 82 4.4. Causal Relevance in Psychology and Neuroscience.............................................. 84 4.4.1. Neural and Psychological Patterns of Events ................................................. 85 4.4.2. Patricia Goldman-Rakic’ Theory of Prefrontal Cortex................................... 95 4.4.3. Mental Causation, Mechanisms and Part-Whole Relations.......................... 103 5. Paper (#3): Is there a Binding Problem of Behavior? E.J. Lowe on Causal Closure . 107 5.1. Introduction.......................................................................................................... 108 5.2. The Case for Causal Closure................................................................................ 110 5.3. The Possibility of Invisible Mental Causation..................................................... 112 5.4. Lowe’s Argument for the Plausibility of Invisible Mental Causation................. 114 5.5. Against Invisible Mental Causation..................................................................... 118 5.5.1. Lowe’s Argument is Inconclusive ................................................................ 119 5.5.2. Invisible Mental Causation Fits Ill with Neuroscientific Practice................ 121 5.5.3. Bodily Movements Do Not Appear to Be Rendered Coincidental............... 126 5.6. Conclusions.......................................................................................................... 131 6. Paper (#4): What Is Closed in Causal Closure?.......................................................... 132 6.1. Introduction.......................................................................................................... 132 6.2. The Significance of Causal Closure..................................................................... 133 6.3. The Empirical Status of Closure.......................................................................... 136 6.4. Sturgeon’s Challenge........................................................................................... 138 6.5. Lessons from Sturgeon’s Challenge .................................................................... 143 6.6. Neurobiological quasi-Closure ............................................................................ 146 6.6.1. Neurobiological quasi-Closure and a Neural Exclusion Argument.............. 147 6.6.2. Arguing for quasi-Closure ............................................................................ 152 6.6.3. Extrapolating from these Models.................................................................. 167 6.7. Conclusions.......................................................................................................... 169 References....................................................................................................................... 170 v Acknowledgments I began working on this project in July 2003, after receiving a grant from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oslo. The present thesis is the result of three years work, primarily conducted at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oslo. Throughout this period the department has provided me with a very friendly and open- minded workplace. I offer a huge general “thank you” to my friends and colleagues here for making these three years highly enjoyable, not only professionally, but also socially speaking. Special thanks are due to my supervisor, Bjørn Torgrim Ramberg. Bjørn has patiently followed my explorations in the philosophy of mind since my Masters Thesis on emergentism. He always combines criticism with encouragement and charitable interpretation. Bjørn has the gift of being able to make old problems look more interesting by offering refreshingly new metaphilosophical perspectives. No doubt he is also partly responsible for sparking my interest in investigating how neuroscience can be brought to bear on the philosophy of mind. The participants at the department’s Dissertation Seminar should all be thanked both for providing feedback on the two occasions when I have presented drafts there, as well as for allowing me to learn about their own work. Four of my fellow Ph.D. students – Jon Anders Lindstrøm, Gry Oftedal, Lars Bjarne Reinholdtsen and Anders Strand – deserve special mention. I have greatly enjoyed the informal colloquia we have organized as well as our trips to conferences. In their various ways these four have all influenced my philosophy. My interest in mental causation was originally kindled by Carsten Martin Hansen’s seminar on Jaegwon Kim’s philosophy in the spring term of 2000. I have since had the pleasure of discussing philosophy with him on many occasions, and have benefited enormously from his very perceptive comments on my work. In the same spirit I thank Nils Roll-Hansen for penetrating comments on, and discussions of, physicalism. Thanks also to Lene Bomann-Larsen and Jakob Elster for commenting on the introduction to this thesis. Jakob also provided some very perceptive advice about my vi criticism of Tyler Burge. Anders Nes should be credited for some helpful suggestions about dualism. My work has also benefited from contact with researchers abroad. I thank John Bickle for discussions of neuroscience, guidance in my tentative explorations into the scientific literature
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