Epiphenomenalism

Epiphenomenalism is a position on tbe mind–body problem which holds that physical and biochemical events within tbe human body are causal with respect to mental events. According to this view, subjective mental events are completely dependent for tbeir existence on corresponding physical and biochemical events within tbe human body yet tbemselves have no causal efficacy on physical events. The appearance that subjective mental states influence physical events is merely an illusion. For instance, fear seems to make tbe heart beat faster, but according to epiphenomenalism tbe biochemical secretions of tbe brain and nervous system—not tbe experience of fear—is what raises tbe heartbeat. Because mental events are a kind of overflow that cannot cause anything physical, yet have non-physical properties, epiphenomenalism is viewed as a form of property dualism.