Cognitive Inquiries and the Problem of Mental Causality

Abstract

Based on some concrete examples of cognitive investigations by Nielson, Libet, Penfield, Ramachandran, Humphrey and on the philosophical interpretations of them by Searl, Dennett, Block, Ivanov the article analyzes the influence of cognitive science on the problem of mental causation, evaluates the explanatory potential of cognitive investigations for solving that problem. Given the ambiguity of the experimental data that directly takes us to discuss the conceptual difficulties, the author comes to the conclusion that the cognitive science can not solve the problem of mental causation but on the other hand it makes the problem more neutral.