Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
If epiphenomenalism is true, mental causation is an illusion. Even if pain and pleasure were inverted, you’d go on behaving the same way you do now, since your conscious states have nothing to do with determining or motivating your physical behavior. This is counterintuitive, to say the least. But it also leaves us completely unable to explain why our conscious states line up appropriately with our actions. We typically think that natural selection molded our mental profile: that which aids in survival and reproduction is incentivized by experiences with a positive hedonic valence, and vice versa. Thus, we have an evolutionary explanation of harmonious correlations. But on epiphenomenalism, this can't be the right explanation, since experiences play no causal role at all. If they have no causal influence, they can't make any difference to genetic fitness. So how is it that harmonious correlations evolved if experiences are invisible to natural selection?
Psychophysical Harmony w/ Dustin Crummett youtu.be/GHbemF3jy2M
Twitter @waldenpod @OnPanpsychism
Transcript emersongreenblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/07/william-james-evolutionary-argument-against-epiphenomenalism
https://linktr.ee/emersongreen
/ Counter Apologetics /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/counter
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counter-apologetics/id1273573417
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0xp05xgyg04BWh0U1tCZ0z
/ Walden Pod /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/waldenpod
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5It3kjkrB9CTDen1Sx3aGl?si=fZ6MENZ4TdSLDPLAJ_6dAA&nd=1
/ Timestamps /
00:00 Pain/Pleasure Inversion
01:24 Epiphenomenalism
01:59 James' Evolutionary Argument
07:41 An argument for theism?
08:31 Conclusion
If epiphenomenalism is true, mental causation is an illusion. Even if pain and pleasure were inverted, you’d go on behaving the same way you do now, since your conscious states have nothing to do with determining or motivating your physical behavior. This is counterintuitive, to say the least. But it also leaves us completely unable to explain why our conscious states line up appropriately with our actions. We typically think that natural selection molded our mental profile: that which aids in survival and reproduction is incentivized by experiences with a positive hedonic valence, and vice versa. Thus, we have an evolutionary explanation of harmonious correlations. But on epiphenomenalism, this can't be the right explanation, since experiences play no causal role at all. If they have no causal influence, they can't make any difference to genetic fitness. So how is it that harmonious correlations evolved if experiences are invisible to natural selection?
Psychophysical Harmony w/ Dustin Crummett youtu.be/GHbemF3jy2M
Twitter @waldenpod @OnPanpsychism
Transcript emersongreenblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/07/william-james-evolutionary-argument-against-epiphenomenalism
https://linktr.ee/emersongreen
/ Counter Apologetics /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/counter
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counter-apologetics/id1273573417
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0xp05xgyg04BWh0U1tCZ0z
/ Walden Pod /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/waldenpod
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5It3kjkrB9CTDen1Sx3aGl?si=fZ6MENZ4TdSLDPLAJ_6dAA&nd=1
/ Timestamps /
00:00 Pain/Pleasure Inversion
01:24 Epiphenomenalism
01:59 James' Evolutionary Argument
07:41 An argument for theism?
08:31 Conclusion
