Epiphenomenon

An epiphenomenon (plural - epiphenomena) is a secondary phenomenon that occurs alongside or in parallel to a primary phenomenon.

* Medicine - In Medicine, an epiphenomenon is a secondary symptom seemingly unrelated to the original disease or disorder. For example, having an increased risk of Breast Cancer as a result of taking an Antibiotic is an epiphenomenon. It is not the antibiotic that is causing the increased risk, but the increased Inflammation associated with Bacteria Infection. Often, a causal relationship between the phenomena is implied: the epiphenomenon is a consequence of the primary phenomenon. In medicine, this relationship is typically not implied: an epiphenomenon may occur independently, and is merely called an epiphenomenon because it is not the primary phenomenon under study. (A side-effect is a specific kind of epiphenomenon that does occur as a direct consequence.)

* Philosophy of mind and psychology - An epiphenomenon can be an effect of primary phenomena, but cannot effect a primary phenomenon. In philosophy of mind, epiphenomenalism is the view that mental 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, effected by the physical world (and by other epiphenomena in weak epiphenomenalism), but not able to have an effect on the physical world. Instrumentalist versions of epiphenomenalism allow for 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. [Metaphysics, Richard Taylor]

:* Free will - According to epiphenomenalism, the free will to have an effect on the physical world is an illusion, as physical phenomena can only be caused by other physical phenomena. In weak epiphenomenalism, there is free will to cause some mental effects, allowing for mental discipline that is directed at other mental phenomena, or some new age effects on the mind.

:* Behaviorism - Weak versions of behaviorism in psychology, which admit for the existence of mental phenomena, but not to their meaningful study as causes of any observable behavior in psychology, view mental phenomena as either epiphenomena, or linguistic summaries, as instrumentalist tools for examination of objectively observable physical behavior in others.

* History - Epiphenomenalism was first mentioned by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1874Fact|date=September 2008.

Notes

*Huxley, T. H. (1874). "On the Hypothesis that Animals are Automata, and its History", "The Fortnightly Review", n.s.16:555-580. Reprinted in "Method and Results: Essays by Thomas H. Huxley" (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1898).