Interactionism, Energy Conservation, and the Violation of Physical Laws

Abstract

The law of energy conservation is either analytic and not threatened by psychophysical interactionism or contingent upon the causal closure of the physical world which interactionism denies. In either case, interactionism implies departures from the laws of physics, despite attempts to demonstrate the contrary by exploiting the loophole of quantum mechanical indetenninism. These departures are best fonnulated in tenns of modifications, by the conscious self, of the electromagnetic interactions betweenparticles. The electromag-netic vector potential is essentially a summary representation of effects on the motion of particles; these effects can be caused by mental eventsjust as well as by physical events. The interactionist hypothesis implies that the modifications caused by the self cannot be described by mathematical laws. Therefore. the interactions between particles that are modified by a self cannot take place in strict accordance with any physical law. Interactionism, finally, is not irrevocably committed to dualism: it can be incorporated into a panpsychism which pennits the self and the particles constituting the body to be thought of as different aspects of the same causal agent. Key words: conservation laws, energy, free will, indeterminism, indistinguishable particles, mental causation, momentum, panpsycbism, psychophysical interactionism, vector potential