ABSTRACT
The main theme of the epiphenomenalist outlook is that the proper understanding of our mentality requires a set of views about causation that can be roughly summarized by saying that our mentality is a gift from our brains. They may suggest that the hallmark of mentality is a combination of representational content and phenomenology, and that the unity of mind implied by a view that finds both of these in all instances of mentality is in itself a reason for preferring that kind of view. The view will be equivalent to one that says our self is an organized brain, and actions are produced by certain inputs falling upon a brain that is in a particular state of organization. Sensations are caused by brain events that also causally contribute to further events in our brains. Beliefs and desires are global states of our brains.
