Editing C. D. Broad (section)

=== Psychical research ===
Broad argued that if research could demonstrate that psychic events occur, this would challenge philosophical theories of "[[basic limiting principles]]" in at least five ways:<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Broad|first1=C. D.|year=1949|title=The Relevance of Psychical Research to Philosophy|url=http://www.stafforini.com/broad/Broad%20-%20The%20relevance%20of%20psychical%20research%20to%20philosophy.pdf|journal=Philosophy|volume=24|issue=91|pages=291–309|doi=10.1017/S0031819100007452|s2cid=144880410 }}</ref>

# [[Backward causation]] (i.e., the future affecting the past) is rejected by many philosophers, but would be shown to occur if, for example, people could predict the future.
# One common argument against [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|dualism]] (i.e., the belief that, while bodies are physical entities, minds are a different, non-physical sort of entity) is that physical and non-physical things cannot interact. However, this would be shown to be possible if people can move physical objects by thought ([[telekinesis]]).
# Similarly, philosophers tend to be [[Skepticism|skeptical]] about claims that non-physical 'stuff' could interact with anything. This would also be challenged if [[mind]]s are shown to be able to communicate with each other, as would be the case if [[telepathy|mind-reading]] is possible.
# Philosophers generally accept that we can only learn about the world through [[reason]] and [[perception]]. This belief would be challenged if people were able to psychically perceive events in other places.
# [[Physicalism|Physicalist]] philosophers believe that there cannot be persons without bodies. If ghosts were shown to exist, this view would be challenged.
In his 1949 paper, Broad examined the implications of research by British parapsychologist [[Samuel Soal]], who claimed to have discovered a subject, Basil Shackleton, capable of guessing the identity of [[Zener cards]] with odds of 'billions to one'.<ref name=":0" /> However, the validity of these findings was later questioned by Betty Markwick, following testimony from a colleague suggesting that Soal had manipulated both data and experiment methods.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Markwick |first=Betty |date=1978 |title=The Soal-Goldney experiments with Basil Shackelton: New evidence of data manipulation. |journal=[[Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research]] |volume=56 |pages=250–277}}</ref>