The Mind-Body Problem

The Mind-Body Problem is the debate on how both the mind and the body interract with eachother, and how they are connected. The mind is all about mental processes, thought, and consciousness. The body is about the physical aspects of the brain and the brain’s neurons, and how the brain is structured. Many of the questions asked about this problem are along the lines of; is the mind apart of the body or is the body apart of the mind? In this essay I will be explaining the arguments, counterarguments, and responses this particular problem.

The mind is about mental processes and thought, while the body is the physical aspects of the brain. For years, philosophers have been perplexed by the mind-body problem. The mind is about mental processes and thought, while the body is the physical aspects of the brain. The mind-body problem discusses the mind and body, along with the relationship between them. Dualists and monists are the two types of people that take a stand on the issue. While Dualism may spilt mind and body, monism is the belief that the mind and body are together one. Each of these beliefs can be broken down into types, justifying monism or dualism. Though each have been

Like many people today, Descartes believed that the mind and soul were separate. He believed that the mind’s purpose was only for “thinking” and “non-extended” things. While, the body is an extension; non-thinking. Descartes thought that the mind and body were different substances, thus they

Nagel argues that as long as there is something that it is to be like that organism, than that organism can have a consciousness. We can imagine what it is like to not be physical, to not have a body at all; we just float around in no particular space without the ability to do anything other than think. Chalmers Zombie argument proposes the logical possibility of a “zombie.” The type of zombie Chalmers proposes is unlike Hollywood zombies which tend to be behaviorally impaired or physically disfigured, but rather are identical to us molecule for molecule. The only difference between us and our zombies would be the lack of any conscious experience in the zombies.

The mind-body problem is a sophisticated topic discussed by many philosophers. But one philosopher in particular, Peter Carruthers, explains and solves the mind-body problem through the identity theory. I agree with Carruthers' claim that the mind and brain are both the same physical states. Opposing views argue that the mind is separate from the brain/body. Carruthers has made his concepts clear in his article “The Mind Is the Brain”.

The mind and body problem studies the relationship between the mind and the body, particularly the consciousness and the brain. The problem is traced to Descartes, who questioned how the immaterial mind could affect the material body. In his view, the mind is a thinking thing while the body is an extended thing, where the mind and the body are two separate substances, and held that there are two way causal reactions between the two. The problem arises when we question how an immaterial object affect a material object in action (such as when the body performs an action), and how an unextended thing affect something that is extended (such as the experience of pain). With this indication, the primary questions that concerns the mind-body problem concentrates on the questions of: is the mind part of the body, or vice versa? If they are different, then how do they interact? Conversely, the most common concern inquires whether the mind and body are separate characteristics or the same thing. For hundreds of years, researchers, scholars, and philosophers have been trying to solve the problem of consciousness.

Descartes argument for the mind and body being two distinct substances relies on the idea of doubt. Descartes argument from doubt is an example of why we may not have a body. Descartes begins be saying that he cannot conceive himself of being conscious in a world in which there are no material entities. Furthermore, if he can be conscious at a given time, then he surely must exist at that time. Therefore, he can conceive of himself existing without a body, or physical attributes.

His arguments from the imagination and the senses are supposed to show that his intellectual faculties seem to be linked to something outside of the mind. Descartes had a clear and distinct idea of the mind as thinking and non-extended thing and the body as non-thinking and extended thing. He stated that the relationship between the mind and the body is ? not like a sailor aboard a ship?, the mind is not only separate from the body, but can also live without it. The body is extended and is therefore divisible into separate parts like the arms, legs and other parts.

(Lawhead, 2014) René Descartes was one of the main supporters for the idea of dualism; many of the arguments that are made for dualism come from Descartes thought process and sharing. He was a man who was absolutely certain about his own existence, however, this only applied to his mind and soul, rather than his body. His belief that he had a body was unclear, it existed in the external realm only because of physical sensations. There is a sense that these two entities of mind and body are somehow connected, but they are not the same.

He argues that the mind is separate from the body, and there are a lot of examples that point toward this being true. Although the body has perceptions to interact with the world around us, it can deceive us into sensing something that is not really there. For example, there is a phenomenon known as “phantom pain” where a person missing a limb still experiences pain in the missing limb. The mind-body dualism of Descartes is the only argument that can support how “phantom pain” can actually exist. It is a false perception because there is no limb to actually experience pain.

Philosophers attempt to give light to this problem through Cartesian Dualism--the argument that the mind and body are two separate entities; the body (in which the brain is inside of)

Renee Descartes mentions the Mind Body problem in the 17th century and currently today people in the world are still discussing this, comparing it, debating it. An easy way to think about the two is that the mind is about mental processes, thought and consciousness. The body is about the physical aspects of the brain-neurons and how the brain is structured. The mind-body problem is about how these two interact. Are they separate, are they interlocked, does one happen to be more powerful than the other.

Mind body problem tries to explain the states of the minds, occurrence of events, and action of processes. For instance, thinking is related to other processes and events of the mind. The fact that the mind is not physical in nature and the body is physical attests to this explanation. Mind body problem relate to some of the scientific concepts in different kind of ways. The relationship between the mind body problem and the concepts of neurophysiology, psychophysics and theory of evolution is discussed below.

The theory of mind starts with Descartes Dualism. Descartes was a man that “believed that the body and the soul are different kinds of things.” He called these substances. The body is a material substance, meaning it is not only physical, but it is also the matter in which something is made. On the other hand, the soul is an immaterial substance, meaning it is something spiritual. A person has the combination of both of these things which help create the Mind-Body Dualism. The Mind Body Dualism is a way to solve a problem between the two different kinds of facts: the physical facts of a person like there features such as parts of their body and mental facts such as what they believe in. The body has physical facts while the mind has mental facts. Descartes wanted to prove this by imagining the body without the mind, and the mind without the body. He said if the two things can survive without one or the other, then they are not the same. This concludes that the body and mind are two completely different things. This is called the Conceivability argument for dualism. This helped

Rene Descartes settled the metaphysical differences between the body and mind, but he also have to think about the relationship between mind and body. Mind and body are two different substances with many properties. Moreover the mind and body communicate, its and everyday experience, the actions that we do every day is from our thoughts. The relationship between the body and mind is much more close and special, it cannot be regenerated with any other physical substances. When anywhere in the body is wounded we feel pain and tries to not get injured again. Desires and thoughts have a connection with how the body behaves but the mind is able to take control of the body