An epiphenomenon (plural: epiphenomena) is a secondary phenomenon that occurs alongside or in parallel to a primary phenomenon. The word has two word sense: one that connotation known causality and one that connotes absence of causation or reservation of judgment about it.
Examples
Metaphysics
In the philosophy of
causality, an epiphenomenon is any effect of a cause apart from the effect under primary consideration. In situations in which an event of interest is caused by (or, is said to be caused by) an event , which also causes (or, is said to cause) an event , then is an epiphenomenon. The problem of epiphenomena is often a counterexample to theories of causation. For example, take a simplified Lewisian counterfactual analysis of causation that the meaning of propositions about causal relationships between two events and can be explained in terms of counterfactual conditionals of the form "if had not occurred then would not have occurred". Suppose that causes and that has an epiphenomenon . We then have that if had not occurred, then would not have occurred, either. But then according to the counterfactual analysis of causation, the proposition that there is a causal dependence of on is true; that is, on this view, caused . Since this is not in line with how we ordinarily speak about causation (we would not say that caused ), a counterfactual analysis seems to be insufficient.
Philosophy of mind and psychology
An epiphenomenon can be an effect of primary phenomena, but cannot affect a primary phenomenon. In the philosophy of mind,
epiphenomenalism is the view that
mind phenomena are epiphenomena in that they can be caused by physical phenomena, but cannot cause physical phenomena. In strong epiphenomenalism, epiphenomena that are mental phenomena can
only be caused by physical phenomena, not by other mental phenomena. In weak epiphenomenalism, epiphenomena that are mental phenomena can be caused by both physical phenomena and other mental phenomena, but mental phenomena cannot be the cause of any physical phenomenon.
The physical world operates independently of the mental world in epiphenomenalism; the mental world exists as a derivative parallel world to the physical world, affected by the physical world (and by other epiphenomena in weak epiphenomenalism), but not able to have an effect on the physical world. Instrumentalism versions of epiphenomenalism allow some mental phenomena to cause physical phenomena, when those mental phenomena can be strictly analyzable as summaries of physical phenomena, preserving causality of the physical world to be strictly analyzable by other physical phenomena.
Medicine
In the more general use of the word, a
causality between the phenomena is implied;
the epiphenomenon is a consequence of the primary phenomenon.
This is the
word sense that is related to the noun
epiphenomenalism.
However, in medicine, this relationship is typically not implied, and the word is usually used in its second sense: an epiphenomenon may occur independently, and is called an epiphenomenon because it is not the primary phenomenon under study or because only correlation, not causality, is known or suspected. In this sense, saying that X is associated with Y as an epiphenomenon is preserving an acknowledgment that correlation does not imply causation. Medical sign, , (groups of symptoms), and risk factors can all be epiphenomena in this sense. For example, having an increased risk of breast cancer concurrent with taking an antibiotic is an epiphenomenon. It is not the antibiotic that is causing the increased risk, but the increased inflammation associated with the bacterial infection that prompted the taking of an antibiotic. The metaphor of a tree is one way of helping to explain the difference to someone struggling to understand. If the infection is the root of the tree, and the inflammation is the trunk, then the cancer and the antibiotic are two branches; the antibiotic is not the trunk.
Electromagnetism
Although
electronics is said to be due to the influence of
, the standard approach to the study of electrical phenomena due to James Clerk Maxwell views these particles as secondary:
Propositional theory
Zenon Pylyshyn suggested a propositional model of cognition where people do not conceptualize ideas in images but rather in meaningful relationships. In this theory, epiphenomena refer to images because they are merely products people conceptualize from their actual thought processes.
Pylyshyn defends his claim by explaining that we only see images when we envision the form of an object. While visualizing objects or actions is a frequent process in our mind, it does not occur when we are considering the meaning behind an action or the non-visual properties of an object. There are many concepts we simply cannot envision.
Additionally, when envisioning an image, it changes based on our preconceived notions, suggesting that semantic relations precede visual images. Unfortunately, the idea of epiphenomena in propositional theory is largely subjective and not
falsifiable.
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