thesis

the decisions made within minds exert the intended influence on physical properties or sub-
stance? If not, we end up with weak epiphenomenalism where, despite mentality making some
difference to physicality, it cannot get what it wants, so to speak.
Many other questions are also debated within the philosophy of mind, such as the claims
of panpsychism or panprotopsychism (e.g. Nagel, 1979), the possibilities of weak or strong
artificial intelligence (e.g. Searle, 1980), the nature of selfhood and personal identity (e.g.
Shoemaker and Swinburne, 1984) and doubts over whether the entire metaphysical debate is
a worthwhile endeavour (e.g. Johnston, 1993). Many of these issues will be touched upon in
the subsequent discussion.
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