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epiphenomenalism

I am just getting a handle on this 'ism. It seems to me if mental activity is something other physical activity, then you have (in the opinion of a consistent materialist) dualism all over again. So epiphenomenalism (henceforth 'E') can't be that. Perhaps mental activity is, in the opinion of an E-ist, a kind of higher order material property. Like the hexagon formed by pressing a bunch of marbles together in a compact fashion. This sort of higher order would be an effect of the lower order, just as the hexagonal pattern is an effect of the many marbles. Or rather, the hex pattern is a kind of abstract summation of the particular order in which the many marbles are arranged. But this sort of higher order activity could not be a cause of the lower.

Yup. That's precisely what E-ism maintains.

So this version of E-ism is non-dualistic. Perhaps it's the only version that there is. Certainly the inconsistency of dualistic e-ism is pretty obvious.

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