INTERACTIONISM, ENERGY-CONSERVATION, AND THE VIOLATION OF PHYSICAL LAWS

The law of energy conservation is either analytic and not threatened b y psychophysical interactionism or contingent upon the causal closure of the physical world which interactionism denies. In either case, int eractionism implies departures from the laws of physics, despite attem pts to demonstrate the contrary by exploiting the loophole of quantum mechanical indeterminism. These departures are best formulated in term s of modifications, by the conscious self of the electromagnetic inter actions between particles. The electromagnetic vector potential is ess entially a summary representation of effects on the motion of particle s; these effects can be caused by mental events just as well as by phy sical events. The interactionist hypothesis implies that the modificat ions caused by the self cannot be described by mathematical laws. Ther efore, the interactions between particles that are modified by a self cannot take place in strict accordance with any physical law. Interact ionism, finally, is not irrevocably committed to dualism: it can be in corporated into a panpsychism which permits the self and the particles constituting the body to be thought of as different aspects of the sa me causal agent.