How does mind matter? : Solving the content causation problem

Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper is to develop a solution to one version of the problem of mental causation. The version under examination is the content causation problem: that of explaining how the specifically representational properties of mental phenomena can be causally efficacious of behaviour. I contend that the apparent insolubility of the content causation problem is a legacy of the dyadic conception of representation, which has conditioned philosophical intuitions, but provides little guidance about the relational character of mental content. I argue that a triadic conception of representation yields a more illuminating account of mental content and, in so doing, reveals a candidate solution to the content causation problem. This solution requires the rehabilitation of an approach to mental content determination that is unpopular in contemporary philosophy. But this approach, I conclude, seems mandatory if we are to explain why mental content matters.