Does higher order conceptual processing present a challenge for Epiphenomenalism?

Question

Epiphenomenalism is the view that physical neural processes have a causal effect on mental states, but that the reverse is not true: Mental states cannot effect neural states and only occur after the fact.

Recent experimental results from neuroscience seem to support this viewpoint, where it has been shown that the neural signals for a specific action are transmitted before a person has made a conscious decision to take that action.

I am trying to figure out how can an Epiphenominalist explain the fact that higher order symbols and concepts have a causal effect on our actions, and if humans' capacity for manipulating higher order concepts poses or not a challenge for Epiphenomenalists.

Consider the following examples:

• A person has a headache and reaches for aspirin in the medicine cabinet: From an Epiphenomenalist point of view, this can be easily explained as a reflex that has been acquired over time. A causal chain that goes from [sensation of pain] -> [reaches for cabinet] -> [swallows aspirin] can be explained in purely neural terms as some sort of pavlovian reflex similar to dogs salivating when a light comes on.
• A person in a foreign city gets a very painful tooth ache and so goes on Google to search for a dentist and then calls the insurance company back home to see if her insurance will cover the costs: I can't see any way of explaining this from a purely neurological point of view the way an Epiphenomenalist would have to. The causal chain of events only makes sense if higher order mental concepts such as "Google search", "dentist" and "insurance coverage" are used. The chain of events is too unique to that particular situation to be explained as a an acquired reflex.

My questions:

1. How do Epiphenomenalists explain such causal chains of events that involve higher order mental concepts?
2. Are such causal chains indeed a challenge to Epiphenomenalism?

Answer 1

An excellent challenge to Epiphenomenalism that formalizes some of your concerns: http://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Mind-Search-Fundamental-Philosophy/dp/0195117891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460223321&sr=8-1&keywords=conscious+mind+chalmers

In particuar, the problem is with "knowing" one's own mind. If the subject claims to know a (loosely defined here) mental event, then that event caused the thought-- A view incompatible with epiphenomenalism. For example, if I say "I want _____" then there is a plainly physical consequence of a mental event. So if you accept some version of self-knowledge, this poses potential concerns for the epiphenomenalist viewpoint.

I think this in some sense is central to what you're saying. If we admit to some higher order processes (such as deciding to pick up a phone etc. etc.) there is presumably some intentionality granted in a particular instance. However, if one is to admit knowledge (or some physical manifestation) of this kind of mental activity, there are indeed some concerns.

Answer 2

Based on the name, Epiphenomenalists, it sounds like they are talking about events like epiphanies which is something quite different than the example you gave.

In that case it seems completely consistant with findings, At least within my own model of How I believe my brain works.

I define the subconscious as doing any normal processes we might do consciously only without the awareness of the conscious mind. This then frees up the subconscious from needing to wait for the extremely slow English language our conscious mind needs in order to be conscious.

Then it's just a matter of efficiency.

It handles the repetative tasks which we have trained it to do out of repetition, nevigating familiar menus, or driving our daily commute to work.

But if your putting a lot of time into working out a problem, then the subconscious can eventually pick up on those patterns as well though they may be much more complex tasks. So long as your aware of how to do them, then the subconscious knows as well and it can run 24/7 on it's own even though you might be doing unrelated tasks. If you change projects, it would follow suit in time.

This is why you might get an epiphany at any odd hour of the day or night or why sleeping on a problem seems to be so effective. But, it doesnt cause any reflex action such as alerting your boss. That would deny free will.

BTW, I have been able to consciously train my subconscious for answering a long series of similar problems but with unique multiple choice results. I don't expect anyone to believe this but it seems like a pretty easy experiment to see if it could be repeated by anyone else.