How Can Physics Underlie the Mind?: Top-Down Causation in the Human Context

Physics underlies allcomplexity, including our own existence: how is this possible? How can our ownlives emerge from interactions of electrons, protons, and neutrons? This bookconsiders the interaction of physical and non-physical causation in complexsystems such as living beings, and in particular in the human brain, relatingthis to the emergence of higher levels of complexity with real causal powers. In particular it explores the idea of top-down causation, which is the keyeffect allowing the emergence of true complexity and also enables the causalefficacy of non-physical entities, including the value of money, socialconventions, and ethical choices.