Concept
Mind–body problem
Overview
The mind–body problem is a philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind and body. It addresses the nature of consciousness, mental states, and their relation to the physical brain and nervous system. The problem centers on understanding how immaterial thoughts and feelings can interact with the material world, or whether they are ultimately physical phenomena.
This problem has been a central issue in philosophy of mind since the 17th century, particularly following René Descartes' formulation of dualism, which proposes that mind and body are fundamentally distinct substances. Other major philosophical positions include monism, which encompasses physicalism (everything is ultimately physical) and idealism (everything is ultimately mental). More recent approaches include functionalism, property dualism, and various non-reductive theories.
The mind-body problem raises fundamental questions about causation between mental and physical events, the nature of consciousness, personal identity, and free will. It remains significant in both philosophy and science, influencing fields such as cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence.
In general, the existence of these mind–body connections seems unproblematic. Issues arise, however, when attempting to interpret these relations from a metaphysical or scientific perspective. Such reflections raise a number of questions, including:
Are the mind and body two distinct entities, or a single entity?
If the mind and body are two distinct entities, do the two of them causally interact?
Is it possible for these two distinct entities to causally interact?
What is the nature of this interaction?
Can this interaction ever be an object of empirical study?
If the mind and body are a single entity, then are mental events explicable in terms of physical events, or vice versa?
Is the relation between mental and physical events something that arises de novo at a certain point in development?
These and other questions that discuss the relation between mind and body are questions that all fall under the banner of the 'mind–body problem'.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Augustine appears to be of the same opinion when he expresses his belief that all corporeal things are ruled by God through the spirit of life (De Trin. iii, 4). From what has been said, then, it is clear that the heavenly bodies are not living beings in the same sense as plants and animals, and that if they are called so, it can only be equivocally. It will also be seen that the difference of opinion between those…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
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3. The proposition of the identity of my Self amidst all the manifold representations of which I am conscious, is likewise a proposition lying in the conceptions themselves, and is consequently analytical. But this identity of the subject, of which I am conscious in all its representations, does not relate to or concern the intuition of the subject, by which it is given as an object. This proposition cannot…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
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For this system, which is called that of _occasional causes_ (because it teaches that God acts on the body at the instance of the soul, and _vice versa_), besides introducing perpetual miracles to establish communication [157] between these two substances, does not obviate the derangement of the natural laws obtaining in each of these same substances, which, in the general opinion, their mutual influence would cause.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil
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Philosophers who discussed Mind–body problem
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Immanuel Kant
- Nicolas Malebranche
- David Ray Griffin
- Mortimer J. Adler
- Pierre Gassendi
- Paul Edwards (philosopher)
- Jaegwon Kim
- René Descartes
- Richard Swinburne
- Donald Davidson (philosopher)
- Henry More
- David Papineau
- Jacques Derrida
- Peter Hacker
- Galen Strawson
- Colin McGinn
- Hilary Putnam
- Julien Offray de La Mettrie
- Thomas Metzinger
- William Hasker
- Arnold Geulincx
- Salomon Maimon
Related ideas
- Gilbert Ryle
- The Concept of Mind
- Subjective character of experience
- Avicenna
- Artificial intelligence
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Galen
- Gnosticism
- Philosophical realism
- Philosophy
- Springer Science+Business Media
- Nirvana (Buddhism)
- Immanuel Kant
- John Searle
- Avicennism
- Idealism
- Judaism
- John Eccles (neurophysiologist)
- Karl Popper
- Karl Marx
- On the Soul
- Nicolas Malebranche
- Mind–body dualism
- False dilemma
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Biological naturalism.