ABSTRACT
Causation was an important topic of philosophical reflection during the seventeenth century. This reflection centred around certain particular problems about causation, one of which was the problem of causation between mind and body. The doctrine of the pre-established harmony is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s response to the problem of causation between mind and body. This chapter explains the problem of mind–body causation and Leibniz’s pre-established harmony. There is a regular correlation between what happens in the mind and what happens in the body. This correlation is manifested in two groups of cases, one concerning perception and sensation, and the other concerning action. Leibniz attempts to establish the pre-establish harmony as a whole, rather than parts of it. Typically, he thinks that there are three theories that can explain the correspondence between mind and body, and that pre-established harmony is the best. These are interactionism, occasionalism and pre-established harmony.
