Anomalous Monism is a philosophical thesis about the mind-body relationship. It was first proposed by Donald Davidson in his 1970 paper Mental events. The theory is twofold and states that mental events are identical with physical events (this is physicalism, a form of materialism) and that the mental is anomalous, i.e. under their mental descriptions these mental events are not regulated by strict physical laws. Hence, Davidson proposes an identity theory of mind without the reductive bridge laws associated with the type-identity theory. Since the publication of his paper, Davidson has refined his thesis and both critics and supporters of anomalous monism have come up with their own characterizations of the thesis, many of which appear to differ from Davidson's. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The mind-body problem is the problem of determining the relationship between the human body and the human mind. ... Donald Davidson (March 6, 1917 – August 30, 2003) was an American philosopher and the Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... A mental event is a particular occurrence of something going on in the mind. ... Actually, the suggestion is that we keep this article title as about physicalism generally (as described in the 2 paragraphs below) and split/merge the rest of the content into articles about physicalism in philosophy of mind. ... In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. ... A physical law, scientific law, or a law of nature is a scientific generalization based on empirical observations of physical behavior. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Overview

The classic Identity theory and Anomalous Monism in contrast. For the Identity theory, every token instantiation of a single mental type corresponds (as indicated by the arrows) to a physical token of a single physical type. Hence there is type-identity. For Anomalous Monism, the token-token correspondences can fall outside of the type-type correspondences. The result is token identity.

Considering views about the relation between the mental and the physical as distinguished first by whether or not mental entities are identical with physical entities, and second by whether or not there are strict psychophysical laws, we arrive at a fourfold classification: (1) nomological monism, which says there are strict correlating laws, and that the correlated entities are identical (which is often called materialism); (2) nomological dualism (interactionism, parallelism, epiphenomenalism); (3) anomalous dualism, which holds there are no laws correlating the mental and the physical, and the substances are discrete (Cartesian dualism); and (4) anomalous monism, which allows only one class of entities, but denies the possibility of definitional and nomological reduction. Davidson's claim was that anomalous monism is the answer to the mind-body problem. Interactionism is a generic sociological perspective that brings under its umbrella a number of subperspectives: phenomenology ethnomethodology Symbolic interactionism (social psychology) Interactionism is an American sociological current that analyzes the social interaction. ... In philosophy of mind, dualism is a set of beliefs which begins with the claim that the mental and the physical have a fundamentally different nature. ... Epiphenomenalism is the view in philosophy of mind according to which physical events have mental effects, but mental events have no effects of any kind. ... The word discrete comes from the Latin word discretus which means separate. ... Cartesian dualism was Descartess principle of the separation of mind and matter and mind and body. ... The mind-body problem is the problem of determining the relationship between the human body and the human mind. ...

Since every mental event is some physical event or other, the idea is that someone's thinking at a certain time, for example, that snow is white, is a certain pattern of neural firing in their brain at that time, an event which can be characterized as both a thinking that snow is white (a type of mental event) and a pattern of neural firing (a type of physical event). There is just one event, that can be characterized both in mental terms and in physical terms. If mental events are physical events, they can at least in principle be explained and predicted, like all physical events, on the basis of laws of physical science. However, according to anomalous monism, events cannot be so explained or predicted as described in mental terms (such as "thinking", "desiring" etc), but only as described in physical terms: this is the distinctive feature of the thesis as a brand of physical monism. Comparative brain sizes In animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), acts as the control center of the central nervous system. ... Monism is the metaphysical and theological view that all is of one essential essence, principle, substance or energy. ...

Davidson's classic argument for AM

Davidson makes what even his opponents have called an "ingenuous" argument for his version of non-reductive physicalism. The argument relies on the following three intuitively compelling principles:

1. The priciple of causal interaction: there exist both mental-to-physical as well as physical-to-mental causal interactions.
2. The principle of the nomological character of causality: all events are causally related through strict laws.
3. The principle of the anomalism of the mental: there are no psycho-physical laws which relate the mental and the physical as just that, mental and physical.

Causal interaction

The first principle follows from Davidson's view of the ontology of events and the nature of the relationship of mental events (specifically propositional attitudes) with physical actions. Davidson subcribes to an ontology of events where events (as opposed to objects or states of affairs) are the fundamental, irreducible entities of the mental and physical universe. His original position, as expressed in Actions and Events, was that event-individuation must be done on the basis of causal powers. He later abandoned this view in favour of the individuation of events on the basis of spatio-temporal localization, but his principle of causal interaction seems to imply some sort of, at least, implicit commitment to causal individuation. According to this view, all events are caused by and cause other events and this is the chief, defining characteristic of what an event is. A propositional attitude is a relational mental state connecting a person to a proposition. ... In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek , genitive : being (part. ... Etymology: The word object comes from the latin word objectum a noun form of objectus which in turn comes from objicere, which means to throw or put something before someone. ... State of affairs has some technical usages in philosophy, as well as being a phrase in everyday speech in English. ...

Another relevent aspect of Davidson's ontology of events for anomalous monism is that an event has an indefinite number of properties or aspects. An event such as "the turning on of the light-switch" is not fully described in the words of that particular phrase. Rather, "the turning on of the light-switch" also involves "the illumination of the room", "the alerting of the burglar in the kitchen", etc.. Since a physical event, such as the action of turning on the light-switch can be associated with a very large variety of mental events (reasons) which are potentially capable of rationalizing the action a posteriori, how is it possible to choose the real cause of my turning on the light-switch (which event is the causal one)? Davidson says that the causal event, in such a case, is the particular reason that caused the action to occur. It was because I wanted to see better that I turned on the light-switch and not because I wanted to alert the burglar in the kitchen. The latter is just a sort of side effect. So, for Davidson, "reasons are causes" and this explains the causal efficacy of the mental.

Nomological character of causality

The principle of the nomological character of causality (or cause-law principle) requires that events be covered by so-called strict laws. Davidson originally assumed the validity of this principle but, in more recent years, he felt the need to provide a logical justification for it. So what is a strict law?

Strict Laws

Whenever a particular event E1 is causally related to a second particular event E2, there must be, according to Davidson, a law such that (C1 & D1) -> D2), where C1 represents a set of preliminary conditions, D1 is a desciption of E1 which is sufficent, given C1, for an occurence of an event of the kind D2, which represents the description of E2. The cause-law principle was intended by Davidson to take in both laws of temporal succession as well as bridge laws. Since Davidson denies that any such laws can involve psychological predicates (including such laws as "(M1 & M2) -> M3" wherein the predicates are all psychological or mixed laws such as ((M1 & M2 -> P1) and ((P1 & P2 -> M1))), it follows that such bridge laws as "P1 -> M1", "M1 -> P1" or "M1 iff P1" are to be excluded.

However, mental predicates may be allowed in what are called "hedged laws" which are just strict laws qualified by ceteris paribus (all other things being equal) clauses. What this means is that while the generalization ((M1 & M2 -> P1) is justifiable ceteris paribus, it cannot be fully elaborated in terms of, e.g., (P2 & P3 & M1 & M2 & M3) -> P1.

Justification of Cause-Law

Davidson defended the cause-law principle by revising C.J. Ducasse's (1926) attempt to define singular causal relations without appealing to covering laws. Ducasse's account of cause was based on the notion of change. Some particular event C is the cause of some effect E iff C was the only change that occured in the immediate environment of E just prior to the occurence of E. So, for example, the striking of a match is the cause of the flaming of the match to the extent that the striking is the only change that occurs in the immediate vicinity of the match. Look up Change in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Change This article is about the meaning of change in terms of flux and variation. ... ↔ ⇔ ≡ For other possible meanings of iff, see IFF. In mathematics, philosophy, logic and technical fields that depend on them, iff is used as an abbreviation for if and only if. Common alternative phrases to iff or if and only if include Q is necessary and sufficient for P and P...

Davidson turns this around and asks if it is not the case that our notions of change do not, rather, appeal to a foundation of laws. Davidson first observes that change is just shorthand for change of predicate, in that a change occurs when and only when a predicate that is true (false) of some object later becomes false (true) of that object. Second, and more importantly, the notion of change has itself changed over time: under Netwonian physics, continous motion counts as change but not in Aristotelean physics. Hence, change is theory-dependent and presupposes a background notion of laws. Since change is fundamental to the concept of cause and change is dependent on laws, it follows that cause is also dependent on laws.

The anomalism of the mental

The third principle requires a different justification. It suggests that the mental cannot be linked up with the physical in a chain of psycho-physical laws such that mental events can be predicted and explained on the basis of such laws. This principle arises out of two further doctrines which Davidson espoused throughout his life: the normativity of the mental and semantic holism. Semantic holism is a doctrine in the philosophy of language to the effect that a certain part of language, be it a term or a complete sentence, can only be understood through its relations to a (previously understood) larger segment of language. ...

Normativity

Propositional attitude ascriptions are subject to the constraints of rationality and, so, in ascribing one belief to an individual, I must also ascribe to him all of the beliefs which are logical consequences of that ascription. All of this is in accordance with the principle of charity, according to which we must "try for a theory that finds him consistent, a believer of truths, and a lover of the good" (Davidson 1970). But we can never have all the possible evidence for the ascription of mental states for they are subject to the indeterminacy of translation and their is an enormous amout of subjectivity involved in the process. On the other hand, physical processes are deterministic and descriptive rather than normative. Therefore, their base of evidence is closed and law-governed. A propositional attitude is a relational mental state connecting a person to a proposition. ... In philosophy, the principle of charity is an approach to understanding a logical argument where you render the best, strongest possible interpretation of an arguments meaning. ...

Holism

A beautiful illustration of the point that holism of the mental generates anomalism is offered by Vincenzo Fano. Fano asks us to first consider the the attribution of length to a table. To do this, we must assume a set of laws concerning the interaction between the table and the measuring apparatus: the length of the table doesn't vary significantly during the measurement, lenght must be an additive quantity, "longer than" must an asymmetric, transitive relation and so forth. By assuming these laws and carrying out a few operations, we reach the result of the measurement. There is a certain amount of holism in this process. For exampe, during the measurement process, we might discover that the table is much hotter than the measuring device, in which case the length of the latter will have been modified by the contact. Consequently, we need to modify the temprature of the measuring device. In some cases, we will even have to reconsider and revise some of our laws. This process can continue for some while until we are fairly confident of the results obtained. But it is not only necesssary to have a theory of the interactions between the table and the measuring device, it is also necessary to attribute a set of predicates to the table: a certain temperature, rigidity, electric charge, etc.. And the attribution of each of these predicates presupposes, in turn, another theory. So, the attribution of F to x presupposes Px and the theory T_f, but Px, in turn, presupposes P'x and T_p and so on. As a result, we have a series of predicates F, P, P', P''... and a series of theories T_f, T_p, T_p'.... As Fano states it, "this process would seem like a regressus ad infinitum, if it weren't that T_f + T_p + T_p' + T_p'' converges toward a theory T which is nothing other than physics in its entirety." The same is true of the predicates, which converge toward the set of all the possible physical quantities. Fano calls this convergent holism.

He asks us to then consider the attribution of a belief. We are seeking a good scientific theory of amorous relations. We ask ourselves if Thomas, who has recently been betrayed by his girlfriend Jessica, believes it possible that the relationship can continue. The only way we can find out the answer to this question is simply by asking Thomas if he believes it is possible. Thomas says no. Does this authorize us to attribute to Thomas the beleif that the relationship cannot continue? Of course not, since Thomas is probably angry and confuses his desire to break up with Jessica with his beleifs. So we ask him if he is angry with Jessica. He says that he is, but we cannot attribute to him the beleif that the relationship can continue, because we don't really know if he's confusing his desires with his beliefs or vice versa. So now we ask Thomas if he will still retain the same opinion next month. Thomas pauses for a while and then says yes. At this point, we think we have a definitive confirmation of the fact that Thomas beleives that the relation must be interrupted, since he reflected on the matter before answering. Just to be sure, we ask him what came to mind during that interval of reflection. Thomas answers that he thought of all the unhappy incidents between that took place between himself and Jessica. So we return to our original hypothesis on the basis that Thomas is angry and thereore confuses his desires and his beleifs.

How can we formalize all this? At the beginning, we attributed the predicate "no" to Thomas as a direct reponse to our question. This is a physical predicate F. We can call the attributuon of Thomas' belief that the relationsip cannot continue m. From Fx, we cannot deduce mx. On the basis of the hypothesis that a person who is angry is not capable of examining their own opinions clearly, we asked Thomas if he was angry. We ascribed to him the mental predicate m1 and the physical predicate F1 (the answer "yes" to the question whether he is angry). Now, we can deduce m1 (the fact the he is angry) from F1. But from m1 and F1, we can deduce neither m (the fact that Thomas believes the relationship cannot continue) nor not m. So we continue by attributing the next physical predicate F2 (the positive answer to our question whether he will be of the same opinion in one month). From F2, F1 and m1, we would like to deduce not m. But we weren't sure what Thomas was thinking about during his pause, so we asked him to tell us and, on the basis of this response F3, we deduce m2 (that Thomas confuses his desires with his beliefs). And so on ad infinitum. The conclusion is that the holism of the mental is non-convergent and thereore it is anomalous with respect to the physical.

Resolving the contradiction

So how are the three seemingly irreconcilable principles above resolved? Davidson distinguishes causal relations, which are an extensional matter and not influenced by the way they are described, from law-like relations, which are intentional and dependent on the manner of description. There is no law of nature under which events fall when they are described according to the order in which they appeared on the television news. When the earthquake caused the Church of Santa Maria dalla Chiesa to collapse, there is surely some physical law(s) which explains what happened, but not under the description in terms of the event on Channel 7 at six p.m. causing the events on Channel 8 at six fifteen. In the same way, mental and physical events are causally related but not qua mental events. The mental events have properties which are physical and properties which are irreducibly mental. Hence, AM is a form of property dualism which accompanies ontological monism. It has been suggested that Combative dualism be merged into this article or section. ... In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek , genitive : being (part. ... Monism is the metaphysical and theological view that all is of one essential essence, principle, substance or energy. ...

Finally, for those who objected that this is not really a form of physicalism because there is no assurance that every mental event will have a physical base, Davidson formulated the thesis of supervenience. Mental properties are dependent on physical properties and there can be no change in higher-level properies without a corresponding change in lower-level properties. Actually, the suggestion is that we keep this article title as about physicalism generally (as described in the 2 paragraphs below) and split/merge the rest of the content into articles about physicalism in philosophy of mind. ... In philosophy, supervenience is a well-defined relation between higher-level (e. ...

Arguments against AM and replies

Ted Honderich has powerfully challenged the thesis of anomolous monism, forcing, in his words, the "inventor of anomalous monism to think again". To understand Honderich's argument, it is helpful to describe the example he uses to illustrate the thesis of AM itself: the event of two pears being put on a scale causes the event of the scale's moving to the two-pound mark. But if we describe the event as "the two French and green things caused the scale to move to the two-pound mark", then while this is true, there is no lawlike relation between the greenness and Frenchness of the pears and the pointers moving to the two-pound mark. Ted Honderich is a Canadian-born British academic philosopher, of Mennonite origin, who moved to London in 1959 to work with Alfred Ayer. ...

Honderich then points out that what we are really doing when we say that there is "no lawlike relationship between two things under certain decriptions" is taking certain properties and noting that the two things are not in relation in virtue of those particular properties. But this does not mean they are not in lawlike relation in virtue of certain other properties, such as weight in the pears example. On this basis, we can formulate the generalization that Honderich calls the Nomological Character of Causally-Relevent Properties. Then we ask what the causally relevent properties of the mental events which cause physical events are.

Since Davidson beleives that mental events are causally efficacious (i.e. he rejects epiphenomenalism), then it must be a mental event as such (mental properties of mental events) which are the causally relevent properties. But if we accept the first two claims of the argument for AM, along with the idea of the causal efficacy of the mental, and the Principle of Causally-Relevant properties, then the result is a denial of anomalous monism because there are indeed psycho-physical lawlike connections. On the other hand, if we wish to retain the principle of the anomalism of the mental then we must reject causal efficacy and embrace epiphenomalism. Epiphenomenalism is the view in philosophy of mind according to which physical events have mental effects, but mental events have no effects of any kind. ...

Davidson has responsed to such arguments by reformulating anomalous monism and has defended the improved version in Thinking Causes. He points out that the defect in the so-called epiphenomalism problem lies in its confusion of the concept "by virtue of" (or necessary for) with the idea of an event's being responsible for another. Also, Honderich's example of the pears and the scale is jerryrigged in such a way that only a single effect is taken into consideration: the alteration on the scale. But the action of placing pears on a scale can have many different effects; it can attract the attention of a customer, for example. In this case, the causally relevent properties would be precisely the color, shape and other irrelevant properties of the fruit. What is relevent or irrelevent therefore depends, in part, on the context of explanatory interest.

References

• Davidson, D. (1970) "Mental Events", in Actions and Events, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
• Davidson, D. (1993) "Thinking Causes", in J. Heil and A. Mele (eds) Mental Causation, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Honderich, T. (1982) "The Argument for Anomalous Monism", Analysis 42:59-64.
• Honderich, T. (1984) "Smith and the Champion of Mauve", Analysis 44:86-89.
• Fano, V. (1992) "Olismi non convergenti" (Non-convergent holisms) in Dell Utri, Massino (ed). Olismo, Quodlibet. 1992.

Further reading

• Child, W. (1993) "Anomalism, Uncodifiability, and Psychophysical Relations", Philosophical Review 102: 215-45.
• Davidson, D. (1973) "The Material Mind", in Actions and Events, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
• Davidson, D. (1974) "Psychology as Philosophy", in Actions and Events, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
• Davidson, D. (1995) "Donald Davidson", in S. Guttenplan (ed.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind, Oxford: Blackwell.
• Honderich, T. (1981) "Psychophysical Lawlike Connections and their Problem", Inquiry 24: 277-303.
• Kim, J. (1985) "Psychophysical Laws", in E. LePore and B.P. McLaughlin (eds) Actions and Events: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson, Oxford: Blackwell.
• LePore, E. and McLaughlin, B.P. (1985) Actions and Events: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson, Oxford: Blackwell.
• McLaughlin, B.P. (1985) "Anomalous Monism and the Irreducibility of the Mental", in E. LePore and B.P. McLaughlin (eds) Actions and Events: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson, Oxford: Blackwell.
• Stanton, W.L. (1983) "Supervenience and Psychological Law in Anomalous Monism", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 64: 72-9.

External links

• Anomalous Monism in A Field Guide to the Philosophy of Mind
• Anomalous Monism in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Bibliography on Anomalous Monism in Contemporary Philosophy of Mind: An Annotated Bibliography
• Mind and Anomalous Monism in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy