ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to explore a strategy that has been used to defuse problems arising in various areas of the philosophy of mind. The strategy, to be outlined, proposes a novel twist to solve the puzzle of how to combine mental causation with the normativity which is supposed to be a feature of the mental. An important aspect of this puzzle concerns the tension between the ‘impersonality’ of causal processes with the personal nature of our responsibility for acting in accordance with our reasons for acting. In order to appreciate the novelty of the strategy employed to reduce this tension it is necessary to delve into the murky history of mental causation debates.
