Definitions > Epiphenomenalism
Epiphenomenalism is a position on the mind–body problem which holds that subjective mental events are completely dependent for their existence on corresponding physical and biochemical events within the animal body yet themselves have no causal efficacy on physical events.
The appearance that subjective mental states (such as intentions) influence physical events is merely an illusion. For instance, fear seems to make the heart beat faster, but according to epiphenomenalism, the biochemical secretions of the brain and nervous system (such as adrenaline)—not the experience of fear—is what raises the heartbeat.
That is, subjetive experiences does not have influence on the material world. If this were true, subjetive experiences and motivation by themselves seems to be evolutionarily irrelevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphenomenalism
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