An Argument Against Supernatural Causation

[Caecilian]

Hi Caecilian,

Thanx for the post on Jaegwon Kim's argument.

It seems to me that Jaegwon Kim is boldly defining causality as a temporal-spatial relationship in the traditional dimensions we know. What if reality has additional dimensions, hidden from our observation, where souls reside and where trajectories through these additional dimensions pair event A to event B in such a way that A neccessitates B? Than it would look like magical or supernatural causation to us, wouldn't it? How can Kim rule that out?

Hmmm...Interesting objection, but I don't think it works. Heres why:

Lets call the dimension that supernatural causation occurs in X. Souls etc are non-spatial, but they are X-dimensional. The causal trajectory goes from A to B through dimension X. Bear in mind that the causal traffic needs to be 2-way. Minds affect bodies and vice versa.

Okay, for that to work then ordinary matter also has to be X-dimensional (as well as spatial of course). Otherwise we have the same argument again, only applying to dimension X rather than space. Thus X-dimensionality is a natural property of natural objects, as well as being a property of supernatural stuff.

And once we establish that, I'd suggest that we're back on the slippery slope to materialist monism. If natural objects are X-dimensional, and causation can occur X-dimensionally, then surely dimension X comes under the purview of science. Okay, we can't detect dimension X right now, but if we can transmit causation through it then it should be possible to do so, at least in theory.

Theres also the question of whether natural objects can affect other natural objects via dimension X rather than via space. If so, then where the hell is this x-dimensional causation? If not, why not?