Epiphenomenalism
...e the effects but never the causes of bodily activities." It is difficult to accept this view as conscious thought is absent from the picture. How could one believe that all thoughts, whether conscious or unconscious are solely the by-products of physical events. According to Taylor, wouldn't any series of people experiencing the same physical events ultimately think and act the same as identical mental stimuli would be affecting their minds. If the epiphenomenalist theory is indeed true, then it is assumed that the nervous system, brain and body all interact in order to produce bodily functions which ultimately cause mental events. With that assumption in mind, how does one explain a person with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, an incurable disease of the nervous system. ALS completely destroys the nervous system and disables many bodily functions from occurring or from "feeling" the activities of the body. Relating this to Taylor's definition of epiphenomenalism, one could assume that since there are no bodily functions the mind would not have any events. Common knowledge proves this to be untrue. When the brain is freed of the routine chores of maintaining bodily functions and receiving the millions of inputs that happen every millisecond, the mind can open to explore beyond itself. How else could the human phenomenon of Stephen Hawking be explained. Hawking's body has degenerated to such a point where there is virtually no connection between the body and the mind, yet he is still able to produce mental processes and unique thoughts at an exceptional level with no causal influence. Hawkings' A Brief History of Time, has been acclaimed by the scientific community as the most insightful look into the universe since Einstein. Epiphenomenalism also violates the aspects of free will, common sense and creativity. It leaves consciousness precariously perched on top of physical processes as a kind of add-on extra. Can the concepts of love, hate, freedom and dreams or the gut wrenching consequences of disgust, jealousy or vilification be nothing more than pure internal fabrication. Fro...