User:AlmaAb11/Psychophysical parallelism

 Relation of Parallelism to Other Train of Thoughts 

Psychophysical Parallelism vs Epiphenomenalism

Psychophysical parallelism can be compared to epiphenomenalism due to the fact that they are both non-fundamentalist methods to link mind and body causality. Psychophysical parallelism is the ideology that the mind and the body hold no interaction between them, but that they are synchronized. On the other hand, epiphenomenalism proclaims that mental occurrences can be triggered by physical ones, but that mental occurrences do not affect anything, they simply spark and fade, so they do not cause any events whatsoever. For instance, let’s picture one accidentally cutting themself while chopping avocados. From the view of psychophysical parallelism, the physical neural reaction would not provoke the mental state of pain itself, rather pain would be triggered in coordination with the physical reaction. And so, the mind and the body do not affect each other. However, from the perspective of epiphenomenalism, the mental states of pain would be occasioned by the physical event of the neural reaction of cutting through the skin. The mental states of pain then irritation or sadness  will occur and pass one after the other. Ultimately, the difference lies in the belief of correlation between mental and physical, which epiphenomenalism believes present, while parallelism does not.

Relation to Causal Closure

Causal closure (also referred to as mental causation, causal interactionism or causation) is the metaphysical theory which dictates that every process stems from a cause and expresses consequences of its respective nature. (i.e.: A physical cause initiates a physical process which, in turn, results in a physical consequence. This can be applied to a mental nature). Consequently, this implies that the mental and physical processes do not affect each other, as they cannot interact with one another.

Causal closure iterating that the physical and mental world cannot interact presents an obvious issue in regard to dualism. In the world of dualism, the mind and body are two entirely separate constituents which continuously interact with each other, in order for the human being to function as a whole. Causation therefore fundamentally discredits dualism.

Psychophysical parallelism accordingly provides a solution for dualists. Psychophysical parallelism explains that the mental mind and the physical body undergo the same experiences in a parallel fashion. Ergo, they do not interact with one another, but they act and react cohesively and simultaneously. This theory offers an explanation on behalf of dualism : the mind and body remain two distinct properties of humans, yet they do not interact with each other. They rather function in parallel to each other : coordinated but independent.