Non-reductive Physicalism, Irreducibility of the Mental and the Problem of Mental Causation : A study of Donald Davidson's and Georg Henrik von Wright's positions in the philosophy of mind

In this study I consider what kind of perspective on the mind body problem is taken and can be taken by a philosophical position called non-reductive physicalism. Many positions fall under this label. The form of non-reductive physicalism which I discuss is in essential respects the position taken by Donald Davidson (1917-2003) and Georg Henrik von Wright (1916-2003). I defend their positions and discuss the unrecognized similarities between their views. Non-reductive physicalism combines two theses: (a) Everything that exists is physical; (b) Mental phenomena cannot be reduced to the states of the brain. This means that according to non-reductive physicalism the mental aspect of humans (be it a soul, mind, or spirit) is an irreducible part of the human condition. Also Davidson and von Wright claim that, in some important sense, the mental aspect of a human being does not reduce to the physical aspect, that there is a gap between these aspects that cannot be closed. I claim that their arguments for this conclusion are convincing. I also argue that whereas von Wright and Davidson give interesting arguments for the irreducibility of the mental, their physicalism is unwarranted. These philosophers do not give good reasons for believing that reality is thoroughly physical. Notwithstanding the materialistic consensus in the contemporary philosophy of mind the ontology of mind is still an uncharted territory where real breakthroughs are not to be expected until a radically new ontological position is developed. The third main claim of this work is that the problem of mental causation cannot be solved from the Davidsonian - von Wrightian perspective. The problem of mental causation is the problem of how mental phenomena like beliefs can cause physical movements of the body. As I see it, the essential point of non-reductive physicalism - the irreducibility of the mental - and the problem of mental causation are closely related. If mental phenomena do not reduce to causally effective states of the brain, then what justifies the belief that mental phenomena have causal powers? If mental causes do not reduce to physical causes, then how to tell when - or whether - the mental causes in terms of which human actions are explained are actually effective? I argue that this - how to decide when mental causes really are effective - is the real problem of mental causation. The motivation to explore and defend a non-reductive position stems from the belief that reductive physicalism leads to serious ethical problems. My claim is that Davidson's and von Wright's ultimate reason to defend a non-reductive view comes back to their belief that a reductive understanding of human nature would be a narrow and possibly harmful perspective. The final conclusion of my thesis is that von Wright's and Davidson's positions provide a starting point from which the current scientistic philosophy of mind can be critically further explored in the future.

Causation, counterfactuals and competitive advantage

Causation is still poorly understood in strategy research, and confusion prevails around key concepts such as competitive advantage. In this paper, we define epistemological conditions that help to dispel some of this confusion and to provide a basis for more developed approaches. In particular, we argue that a counterfactual approach – that builds on a systematic analysis of ‘what-if’ questions – can advance our understanding of key causal mechanisms in strategy research. We offer two concrete methodologies – counterfactual history and causal modeling – as useful solutions. We also show that these methodologies open up new avenues in research on competitive advantage. Counterfactual history can add to our understanding of the context-specific construction of resource-based competitive advantage and path dependence, and causal modeling can help to reconceptualize the relationships between resources and performance. In particular, resource properties can be regarded as mediating mechanisms in these causal relationships.

Causation, counterfactuals and competitive advantage

Causation is still poorly understood in strategy research, and confusion prevails around key concepts such as competitive advantage. In this paper, we define epistemological conditions that help to dispel some of this confusion and to provide a basis for more developed approaches. In particular, we argue that a counterfactual approach – that builds on a systematic analysis of ‘what-if’ questions – can advance our understanding of key causal mechanisms in strategy research. We offer two concrete methodologies – counterfactual history and causal modeling – as useful solutions. We also show that these methodologies open up new avenues in research on competitive advantage. Counterfactual history can add to our understanding of the context-specific construction of resource-based competitive advantage and path dependence, and causal modeling can help to reconceptualize the relationships between resources and performance. In particular, resource properties can be regarded as mediating mechanisms in these causal relationships.

Fatigued driving : prevalence, risk factors and groups, and the law

Fatigue and sleepiness are major causes of road traffic accidents. However, precise data is often lacking because a validated and reliable device for detecting the level of sleepiness (cf. the breathalyzer for alcohol levels) does not exist, nor does criteria for the unambiguous detection of fatigue/sleepiness as a contributing factor in accident causation. Therefore, identification of risk factors and groups might not always be easy. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to incorporate fatigue in operationalized terms into either traffic or criminal law. The main aims of this thesis were to estimate the prevalence of fatigue problems while driving among the Finnish driving population, to explore how VALT multidisciplinary investigation teams, Finnish police, and courts recognize (and prosecute) fatigue in traffic, to identify risk factors and groups, and finally to explore the application of the Finnish Road Traffic Act (RTA), which explicitly forbids driving while tired in Article 63. Several different sources of data were used: a computerized database and the original folders of multidisciplinary teams investigating fatal accidents (VALT), the driver records database (AKE), prosecutor and court decisions, a survey of young male military conscripts, and a survey of a representative sample of the Finnish active driving population. The results show that 8-15% of fatal accidents during 1991-2001 were fatigue related, that every fifth Finnish driver has fallen asleep while driving at some point during his/her driving career, and that the Finnish police and courts punish on average one driver per day on the basis of fatigued driving (based on the data from the years 2004-2005). The main finding regarding risk factors and risk groups is that during the summer months, especially in the afternoon, the risk of falling asleep while driving is increased. Furthermore, the results indicate that those with a higher risk of falling asleep while driving are men in general, but especially young male drivers including military conscripts and the elderly during the afternoon hours and the summer in particular; professional drivers breaking the rules about duty and rest hours; and drivers with a tendency to fall asleep easily. A time-of-day pattern of sleep-related incidents was repeatedly found. It was found that VALT teams can be considered relatively reliable when assessing the role of fatigue and sleepiness in accident causation; thus, similar experts might be valuable in the court process as expert witnesses when fatigue or sleepiness are suspected to have a role in an accident’s origins. However, the application of Article 63 of the RTA that forbids, among other things, fatigued driving will continue to be an issue that deserves further attention. This should be done in the context of a needed attitude change towards driving while in a state of extreme tiredness (e.g., after being awake for more than 24 hours), which produces performance deterioration comparable to illegal intoxication (BAC around 0.1%). Regarding the well-known interactive effect of increased sleepiness and even small alcohol levels, the relatively high proportion (up to 14.5%) of Finnish drivers owning and using a breathalyzer raises some concern. This concern exists because these drivers are obviously more focused on not breaking the “magic” line of 0.05% BAC than being concerned about driving impairment, which might be much worse than they realize because of the interactive effects of increased sleepiness and even low alcohol consumption. In conclusion, there is no doubt that fatigue and sleepiness problems while driving are common among the Finnish driving population. While we wait for the invention of reliable devices for fatigue/sleepiness detection, we should invest more effort in raising public awareness about the dangerousness of fatigued driving and educate drivers about how to recognize and deal with fatigue and sleepiness when they ultimately occur.

Living arrangements and health

In line with major demographic changes in other Northern European and North American countries and Australia, being nonmarried is becoming increasingly common in Finland, and the proportion of cohabiters and of persons living alone has grown in recent decades. Official marital status no longer reflects an individual s living arrangement, as single, divorced and widowed persons may live alone, with a partner, with children, with parents, with siblings, or with unrelated persons. Thus, more than official marital status, living arrangements may be a stronger discriminator of one s social bonds and health. The general purpose of this study was to deepen our current understanding of the magnitude, trends, and determinants of ill health by living arrangements in the Finnish working-age population. Distinct measures of different dimensions of poor health, as well as an array of associated factors, provided a comprehensive picture of health differences by living arrangements and helped to assess the role of other factors in the interpretation of these differences . Mortality analyses were based on Finnish census records at the end of 1995 linked with cause-of-death registers for 1996 2000. The data included all persons aged 30 and over. Morbidity analyses were based on two comparable cross-sectional studies conducted twenty years apart (the Mini-Finland Survey in 1978 80 and the Health 2000 Survey in 2000 01). Both surveys were based on nationally representative samples of Finns aged 30 and over, and benefited from high participation rates. With the exception of mortality analyses, this study focused on health differences among the working-age population (mortality in age groups 30-64 and 65 and over, self-rated health and mental health in the age group 30-64, and unhealthy alcohol use in the age group 30-54). Compared with all nonmarried groups, married men and women exhibited the best health in terms of mortality, self-rated health, mental health and unhealthy alcohol use. Cohabiters did not differ from married persons in terms of self-rated health or mental health, but did exhibit excess unhealthy alcohol use and high mortality, particularly from alcohol-related causes. Compared with the married, persons living alone or with someone other than a partner exhibited elevated mortality as well as excess poor mental health and unhealthy alcohol use. By all measures of health, men and women living alone tended to be in the worst position. Over the past twenty years, SRH had improved least among single men and women and widowed women, and most among cohabiting women. The association between living arrangements and health has many possible explanations. The health-related selection theory suggests that healthy people are more likely to enter and maintain a marriage or a consensual union than those who are unhealthy (direct selection) or that a variety of health-damaging behavioural and social factors increase the likelihood of ill health and the probability of remaining without a partner or becoming separated from one s partner (indirect selection). According to the social causation theory, marriage or cohabitation has a health-promoting effect, whereas living alone or with others than a partner has a detrimental effect on health. In this study, the role of other factors that are mainly assumed to reflect selection, appeared to be rather modest. Social support, which reflects social causation, contributed only modestly to differences in unhealthy alcohol use by living arrangements, but had a larger effect on differences in poor mental health. Socioeconomic factors and health-related behaviour, which reflect both selection and causation, appeared to play a more important role in the excess poor health of cohabiters and of persons living alone or with someone other than a partner, than of married persons. Living arrangements were strongly connected to various dimensions of ill health. In particular, alcohol consumption appeared to be of great importance in the association between living arrangements and health. To the extent that the proportion of nonmarried persons continues to grow and their health does not improve at the same rate as that of married persons, the challenges that currently nonmarried persons pose to public health will likely increase.

John Searlen teoria tietoisuudesta

Tutkielmassa esitellään ja arvioidaan John Searlen teoriaa tietoisuudesta. Tietoisuus (consciousness) on Searlen mukaan tärkein mielenfilosofinen käsite. Searle ei määrittele käsitettä tarkasti, vaan tyytyy esittämään sitä kuvaavia esimerkkejä ja analogioita. Tietoisuuden keskeisimmiksi ominaisuuksiksi Searlen teoriassa näyttävät muodostuvan intentionaalisuus (intentionality), subjektiivisuus (subjectivity) ja kausaalinen vaikutus käyttäytymiseen (mental causation). Näihin ominaisuuksiin liittyvät myös Searlen painavimmat tietoisuudesta esittämät argumentit. Argumenttien analysointi on tutkielman tärkein tavoite. Searlen yhteysperiaatteen (Connection Principle) mukaan intentionaalisia tiloja voi olla vain olennolla, jolla voi olla tietoisia intentionaalisia tiloja, ja jokainen alitajuinen intentionaalinen tila on ainakin potentiaalisesti tietoinen. Toisin sanoen intentionaalisuuden ja tietoisuuden välillä vallitsee välttämätön yhteys seuraavasti: on loogisesti välttämätöntä, että jokainen intentionaalinen tila voi ainakin periaattessa päästä tietoisuuteen.Tutkielmassa kuitenkin osoitetaan, että yhteysperiaateeseen on syytä suhtautua epäillen. Searlen yhteysperiaatteen puolesta esittämä argumentti näyttää nimittäin sisältävän dilemman. Jos erottelu intrinsiseen ja näennäiseen intentionaalisuuteen tulkitaan Searlen tavoin, syyllistytään sen olettamiseen, mikä pitäisi todistaa; jos taas erottelu tulkitaan toisin kuin Searle, argumentti ei tue yhteysperiaatetta. Searlen mukaan mentaaliset tilat ovat aina jonkun mentaalisia tiloja. Tästä väitteestä Searle pyrkii johtamaan toisen, paljon radikaalimman väitteen: mielen ilmiöt kuuluvat omaan ontologiseen kategoriaansa, subjektiivisten mentaalisten tilojen kategoriaan. Searlen käsitystä tukee Thomas Nagelin esittämä, hyvin samansisältöinen argumentti. Yksimielisyys ei kuitenkaan ole erehtymättömyyden tae, sillä Paul Churchlandin kritiikki näyttää pahasti horjuttavan Searlen subjektiivisuusargumentin uskottavuutta. Churchland väittää Searlen syyllistyvän intensionaaliseen virhepäätelmään. Yksittäisen henkilön episteemisen pääsyn rajoittuneisuudesta ei Churchlandin mukaan voida tehdä mitään ontologisia johtopäätöksiä, koska tiedetyksi tuleminen ei ole objektin aito ominaisuus. Vastaväite näyttää olevan kohtalokas Searlen subjektiivisuusargumentille. Subjektiivisuuden ongelma näyttää olevan perustava metafyysinen vedenjakaja, joka jakaa mielenfilosofiset teoriat toisaalta materialistisiin, toisaalta dualistisiin. Searle uskoo, että mieli-ruumis -ongelma (mind-body problem) on ratkaistavissa ilman, että tarvitsee valita kumpaakaan. Ratkaisu sisältyy kahteen Searlen näennäisesti yhteensopimattomaan teesiin. Ensimmäisen teesin mukaan mentaaliset tilat ovat todellisia ilmiöitä, eikä niitä voida redusoida mihinkään muuhun tai eliminoida määrittelemällä ne uudestaan. Toisen teesin mukaan aivojen operaatiot aiheuttavat mentaaliset tilat ja mentaaliset tilat ovat aivojen piirteitä. Teeseistä jälkimmäinen osoittautuu ongelmalliseksi syistä, jotka Jaegwon Kim on esittänyt. Jos mentaaliset tilat olisivat aivojen ominaisuuksia, ei mielen ja aivojen välinen suhde voisi olla kausaalinen, koska kausaatiossa (causation) on aina kyse kahden erillisen entiteetin tai tapahtuman välisestä relaatiosta, jossa suhteen osapuolien välillä on oltava ajallista etäisyyttä. Toiseksi Searlen vertaus tietoisuuden ja aivojen suhteesta kappaleen kiinteyden ja sen mikrorakenteen suhteeseen epäonnistuu, koska tietoisuus ja kiinteys kuuluvat Searlen teoriassa eri ontologisiin kategorioihin, eikä niitä siten voi ongelmattomasti rinnastaa. Searlen analogia kiinteyteen murtuu myös siksi, että kappaleen mikrorakenne ei yksinkertaisesti aiheuta sen kiinteyttä. Tietoisuus ei siis voi olla samanaikaisesti aivojen ominaisuus ja aivojen kausaalisen toiminnan seuraus. Tutkielmassa päädytään puolustamaan kantaa, että Searlen argumentit eivät ole vakuuttavia ja että Searle ei ole onnistunut eksplikoimaan teoriaa, joka välttäisi dualismiin ja materialismiin liittyvät tunnetut ongelmat. Kysymys mikä on mielen suhde ruumiiseen, jää siten avoimeksi. Avainsanat: intentionaalisuus, mentaalinen, mieli-ruumis -ongelma, Searle, subjektiivisuus, tietoisuus

Consequences of Vertebral Fractures

Vertebral fractures occur due to forces applied to spinal structures. When the bone tissue is weakened, vertebral fractures can result from a minor trauma. Adult vertebral fractures are commonly considered to be an indication for osteoporosis. In children osteoporosis is a rare condition, and pediatric vertebral fractures are usually clearly trauma-related. The aims of this dissertation are to produce knowledge of the epidemiology of osteoporotic vertebral fractures and to analyse their association with total and cause-specific mortality, to find indicators with which to identify individuals who are at great risk of subsequent fractures, to study the incidence of pediatric vertebral fractures and need for their operative treatment and hospital care. The Mobile-Clinic and Mini-Finland Health surveys of the adult population were used as materials in this research. Record linkages to the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register and the Official Cause of Death register were used to study mortality and hospitalization in the same population group. These registers were also used to evaluate epidemiology, mortality, hospitalization and the need for operative management of pediatric vertebral fracture patients. The main findings and conclusions of the present dissertation are: 1. The presence of a thoracic vertebral fracture in adults is a significant predictor of cancer and respiratory mortality. In women, but not in men, vertebral fractures strongly predict mortality due to injuries. Most of these deaths in the study group were hip fracture related. 2. Severe thoracic vertebral fracture in adults was a strong predictor of a subsequent hip fracture, whereas mild or moderate fractures and the number of compressed vertebrae were much weaker predictors, 3. Pediatric spinal fractures were rare: The incidence was 66 per one million children per year. In younger children cervical spine was most often affected, whereas in older children fractures of the thoracic and lumbar spine were more common. Maturation of spinal structures seems to play a major role in the typical injury patterns in children. Thirty per cent of pediatric spinal fractures required surgical treatment. The current study focuses on consequences of vertebral fractures in general, without evaluating further the causation of the studied phenomena. Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms of association between vertebral fractures and specific causes of mortality. A severe vertebral fracture appears to indicate a substantial risk of a subsequent hip fracture. If such a fracture is identified from a chest radiograph, urgent clinical evaluation, treatment of osteoporosis and protective measures against falls are recommended.