
Contents
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Introduction Introduction
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Causal Closure of Physics Causal Closure of Physics
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CoP as a Typicality Condition CoP as a Typicality Condition
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Basic Inconsistencies in CoP Basic Inconsistencies in CoP
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Modern Physics and Free Will Modern Physics and Free Will
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Relativistic Fatalism Relativistic Fatalism
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Quantum Indeterminism Quantum Indeterminism
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Discussion and Perspectives Discussion and Perspectives
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Notes Notes
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5 The Causal Closure of Physics and Free Will
Get accessRobert C. Bishop is associate professor of Physics and Philosophy and the John and Madeleine McIntyre Professor for the Philosophy and History of Science at Wheaton College. He has published numerous articles on reduction and emergence, nonlinear dynamics, complexity, determinism and free will. His most recent book is The Philosophy of the Social Science.
Harald Atmanspacher has been head of the Department for Theory and Data Analysis at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology in Freiburg, Germany, since 1998. He has been a faculty member of the C. G. Jung-Institute Zurich since 2004 and a faculty member of the Parmenides Foundation in Capoliveri, Italy, since 2005 and has been an associate fellow of Collegium Helveticum, ETH, in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2007. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Mind and Matter and writes and teaches in such areas as nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, psychophysical problems, and selected topics in the history and philosophy of science.
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Published:18 September 2012
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Abstract
This article focuses on the thesis known as the causal closure (or causal completeness) of physics (CoP)—that all physical events can be fully explained by physical causes governed by the fundamental laws of physics. This thesis raises well-known questions central to free-will debates about the nature and possibility of the “mental causation” of physical events (e.g., beliefs, desires, intentions). If all causes are physical causes, as CoP implies, it would seem that psychological states or events must be fully reducible to physical events or they would be epiphenomenal. The discussion also introduces a notion of “contextual emergence” (according to which lower-level descriptions of events in physical terms contain necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for higher-level descriptions in mental terms) and argues that such a notion of contextual emergence allows one to answer objections to the possibility of mental causation.
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