Anomalous Monism

Anomalous monism is a philosophical thesis about the mind-body relationship. It was first proposed by Donald Davidson in his 1970 paper Mental events. The theory is twofold and states that mental events are identical with physical events, and that the mental is anomalous, i.e. under their mental descriptions, relationships between these mental events are not describable by strict physical laws. Hence, Davidson proposes an identity theory of mind without the reductive bridge laws associated with the type-identity theory. Since the publication of his paper, Davidson has refined his thesis and both critics and supporters of anomalous monism have come up with their own characterizations of the thesis, many of which appear to differ from Davidson's.

Read more about Anomalous Monism:  Overview, Davidson's Classic Argument For AM, Causal Interaction, Nomological Character of Causality, The Anomalism of The Mental, Resolving The Contradiction, Arguments Against AM and Replies

Famous quotes containing the word anomalous:

    Before the land rose out of the ocean, and became dry land, chaos reigned; and between high and low water mark, where she is partially disrobed and rising, a sort of chaos reigns still, which only anomalous creatures can inhabit.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)