Abstract

According to Jaegwon Kim all versions of nonreductive physicalism are committed to the following claims: (1) the supervenience of mental properties on physical properties; (2) the irreducibility of mental properties to physical properties; (3) the causal efficacy of mental properties. In his supervenience/exclusion argument Kim purports to show that all versions of nonreductive physicalism entail type epiphenomenalism. I argue that Davidson’s version of the token identity theory does not accept (1) and that Kim’s assumptions to the contrary reveal a fundamental disagreement between Davidson and Kim about the metaphysics of events and of causation.