Physicalism and Mental Causation

The editors of this impressive collection make the valid point that the 20th century was that of physicalism, but go on to say that many of the basic concepts have no generally accepted definition and that the view struggles to account for our everyday experience of mental causation. The contributors to this volume set out to elucidate the field in four parts: conceptual foundations (e.g. the meaning of supervenience and the chartacterisation of physicalism), causal closure, the problem of (mental) causal exclusion, and causality and human agency. Many contributions revolve around critiques of the work of Jaegwon Kim. The editors provide clear section introductions to the technical papers, which are aimed at professionals in the field. One surprising omission, given his contributions to these questions is Max Velmans, who appears neither in the name index nor the bibliography - he provides a different view from those advanced in this collection and one that the writers should engage with.