Exploring the Different Theories Involved in the Mind and Body Problem

Exploring the Different Theories Involved in the Mind and Body Problem

I will attempt to do this by firstly defining what the mind and body

is secondly discussing what the mind and body problem is. Thirdly

discussing the existing approaches to the problem and finally

discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches.

The body is that which we perceive ourselves to be with our senses.

It usually includes arms, legs a head and so on.

The mind is that which is responsible for one’s thoughts and feelings,

the seat of the faculty of reason.

What is the mind and body problem? We have a conception of at least 2

different kinds of things that exist in the world mental and physical

here are a few examples:

Mental Physical

Pain Mount Everest

Euphoria Hydrogen

Desire Mass

Purpose Size

Belief Location

Any of us could generate a long list of things and we know that both

these types of things are mental phenomena or physical phenomena and

are part of our world. So how are the mental and physical related if

at all.

The mind and body problem dates back at least to Plato (b427bce). By

some accounts Plato was the first dualist with the first materialist

Aristotle(b384bce) close at hand. Descartes (1596-1650) is perhaps

the philosopher that most people reference when discussing the

mind-body problem, for Descartes there are the two substances

mind-matter each substance has a defining attribute in the case of

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...the unified

psychological organism. It might be however, that the mind science of

tomorrow when paranormal as well as normal phenomena has been taken

into account will be able to return an unequivocal answer to the

question. So the debate continues.

Bibliography

Searle, John 2004, mind a brief introduction, Oxford.

Valentine, Elizabeth 1982, conceptual issues in psychology, Rouledge.

New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/functionalism_(phlosophy_of_mind)

03/01/2006

http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/john_searle 04/01/2006

http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~dualism/papers/brains.html 03/01/2006

http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~dualism/papers/minds.html 03/01/2006

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/mind/17th.html 03/01/2006

hhht://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/mindDict/dualism.html 04/01/2006