Mind/Body Problem Research Paper 1

Stephanee Waters
July 29, 2014
Mind/Body Problem

Mind/Body Problem

I chose to do my research paper on the mind/body problem as approached by Descartes.
In order to understand the mind/body problem we need to first understand what materialism,
dualism, monism, and pluralism are. Douglas Soccio in Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction
to Philosophy defines materialism as the belief that everything is composed of matter (and
energy) and can be explained by physical laws, that all human activity can be understood as the
natural behavior of matter according to mechanical laws, and that thinking is merely a complex
form of behaving: the body is a fleshy machine. Dualism is defined as any philosophical
position that divides existence into two completely distinct, independent, unique substances
(Soccio, 2013). Monism is defined as the general name for the belief that everything consists of
only one, ultimate unique substance such as matter or spirit (Soccio, 2013). Lastly pluralism is
defined as the belief that more than one reality or substance exists (Soccio, 2013).
Descartes believed that the mind (or soul) and the body operated according to its own set
of rules. The mind followed the rules or laws of reason, whereas the body is limited to the rules
of physics. He called this dualism, and it is often now called Cartesian dualism. The reason this
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is dualism is because this is the belief that the mind and body are two distinctly different
substances, unlike materialism, monism, and pluralism.
Another way to view the mind and body is by thinking about the two in terms of
immaterial (mind) things and material (body) things. The immaterial things or mind are often
thought of as a spirit or soul that may or may not go on living after our physical body dies. The
material things or the body are the physical things that we can touch and feel.
The mind/body problem is often thought to be a problem of metaphysics. Metaphysics is
the way in which you might view the world through different concepts of abstract thought. The
reason that the issue of the mind/body becomes a problem is because if they are separate
substances as suggested by Descartes dualism then how can they be connected? How can the
mind control the body? Many people, particularly religious people, believe that the mind goes on
after the body dies. Some people even believe that the mind comes back in a new form. There are
in people who believe that the mind dies when the body dies. Many people are afraid of what
might happen to their mind when they die. Also many people are concerned with whether their
mind controls their body or not.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn host and creator of Close to Truth conducted an interview for the
website Science + Religion Today where he asked a number of philosophers what they thought
might be the solution to the mind/body problem (scienceandreligiontoday.com). One of the
philosophers suggested two solutions. The first solution that the philosopher suggested was
functionalism, which is the idea that the nature of the mind is a matter of the role that mental
states play in causal relations to other mental states, sensations, and behaviors
(scienceandreligiontoday.com). The functionalists look at the mind based on its functionality.
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They believe that it does not matter what the mind is made out of as long as it functions the same
way, much like a computer.
The second solution offered by the philosopher that was interviewed by Robert Lawrence
Kuhn was physicalism, which is the idea that you can construct the mind, at least the conscious
part of the mind, in terms of its biological realization in the brain
(scienceandreligiontoday.com). The physicalists look at the mind based on its biology. They
believe that the more biological, the more physical (scienceandreligiontoday.com) the mind is.
John G. Taylor, author of A Final Solution to the Mind/Body Problem suggests a solution
similar to physicalism. He calls it the brain-based approach. In section six of A Final Solution to
the Mind/Body Problem Taylor states that to claim that the brain is not relevant to a proper
discussion of consciousness also misses the point (Taylor, n.d.). In other words we should not
exclude the brain from the mind when we are approaching the mind/body problem solution of
consciousness.
When I think back on the solutions of the mind/body problem I cannot help, but think
that they all are still limiting what the mind is to one small substance, or it brings up more
questions than it really answers. For instance by focusing on the functionality of the mind we run
into questions of what the actual functionality of the mind is. When we focus on physicality of
the mind it seems that it is no longer an immaterial thing, and we lose sight of the soul portion
of the mind. Therefore, these solutions only brought up more questions for me when it comes to
the mind/body problem.

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References:
A Final Solution to the Mind/Body Problem;
http://www.aslab.upm.es/documents/journals/JMT/Vol1-No1/JMT_1_1-FIN-TAYLOR.pdf
Socio, Douglas J; (2013) Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy; Cengage
Learning
Solutions to the Mind/Body Problem;
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/06/03/solutions-to-the-mind-body-problem/