The paper argues against systematic overdetermination being an acceptable solution to the problem of mental causation within a Humean counterfactual theory of causation. The truthmakers of the counterfactuals in question include laws of nature, and there are laws that support physical to physical counterfactuals, but no laws in the same sense that support mental to physical counterfactuals.

In recent discussions of the Humean Theory Motivation (HTM), several authors – not to mention other philosophers around proverbial water cooler have appealed simplicity theory defend it. But argument from has rarely been explicated or received much critical attention until now. I begin by reconstructing and then argue that it suffers a number problems. Most importantly, first, HTM is unlikely b...

Philosophers of science will be familiar with the ‘canonical’ debate in metaphysics over the modal status of natural laws. In this debate, the Humean faction adopts a world-view in which the fundamental properties are categorical, from which it follows that natural laws are metaphysically contingent. The AntiHumeans, on the other hand, adopt an account in which the fundamental properties are es...

John Heil’s From an Ontological Point of View (Heil 2003) is a tremendous philosophical work. The neo-Lockean ontology the reader finds within its 267 pages is a sensible and refreshing alternative to the neo-Humean ontologies which presently occupy the vast majority of the metaphysical literature. What Heil offers is a much needed change in perspective. Nor are the strengths of the book limite...