In daily life we take it for granted that our minds have conscious control of our actions, at least for most of the time. But many scientists and philosophers deny that this is really the case, because there is no generally accepted theory of how the mind interacts with the body. Max Velmans (Professor of Psychology at Goldsmith's College, London) presents a non-reductive solution to the problem, in which 'conscious mental control' includes 'voluntary' operations of the preconscious mind. On this account, biological determinism is compatible with experienced free will. Velmans' theory is put to the test by nine critics: Ron Chrisley, Todd Feinberg, Jeffrey Gray, John Kihlstrom, Sam Rakover, Ramakrishna Rao, Aaron Sloman, Steve Torrance and Robert Van Gulick. Originally published in as a special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (Vol.9, No.11, 2002).

Table of Contents

• Max Velmans, "How Could Conscious Experiences Affect Brains?"
• John F. Kihlstrom, "The Seductions of Materialism and the Pleasures of Dualism"
• Todd E. Feinberg, "Mental Causation: Facing Up to Ontological Subjectivity"
• Steve Torrance, "The Diffident Physicalist Speaks Out"
• Robert Van Gulick, "Non-reduction, Consciousness and Physical Causation"
• Jeffrey Gray, "It's Time to Move On from Philosophy to Science"
• Sam S. Rakover, "Scientific Rules of the Game and the Mind/Body: A Critique Based On the Theory of Measurement"
• Ron Chrisley and Aaron Sloman, "How Velmans' Conscious Experiences Affected Our Brains"
• K. Ramakrishna Rao, "Bridging Eastern and Western Perspectives On Consciousness"
• Max Velmans, "Making Sense of Causal Interactions Between Consciousness and Brain"

· ISBN 0-907845-39-8 · Published in January 2003 by Imprint Academic · Paperback · 96 pages · $19.00 ·

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