Research Seminar in Decision and Action Theory: Daniele Conti (MCMP)

Title:

On Solving the Exclusion Problem

Abstract:

For many authors, the exclusion problem for mental causation and, more generally, higher-level causation is a problem about overdetermination. Higher-level causation is deemed problematic because, assuming some form of lower-level causal completeness, it appears to entail a worrisome systematic overdetermination of certain events. Popular “compatibilist” strategies in the literature have intended to solve the problem by showing that, on close inspection, higher-level causation is not a case of overdetermination because it lacks certain features of ordinary, “two stones” cases of overdetermination. I will try to show that these approaches leave the core of the problem untouched because they don’t address the reason why systematic overdetermination is considered problematic in the first place – i.e., the fact that it seems to require widespread wild coincidences. I will argue that solving the exclusion problem requires showing that higher-level causation is not a matter of coincidence, and I will consider possible solutions to the problem so conceived.