Mind-Body Problem

Alex Montoya
PHIL 1000

This Mind- Body problem stems directly from classic dualism. The issue
is explaining how mental states, such as beliefs and actions, are related to
physical states and processes. Ren Descartes addressed this problem in the
17th century and created Cartesian dualism. There are a few types of
dualism, such as Interactionism, Occasionalism, Parallelism, and Property
dualism. Interactionsim states that the mind and body have casual
interactions. Occasionalism states the casual links between mind and body
are from divine intervention. Parallelism states the mind and body link is an
illusion, and that they run parallel to each other. Property dualism holds the
mind as an emergence from the body, becoming something separate from
the body (The Mind-Body Problem). This coincides with Platos philosophy of
pure form, that its ontology is different from matter. Descartes made the
mind the center of freedom. According to him, the body is a system of fibers
causing sensations in the brain, which then pull other fibers to activate
muscles (Mind-Body Problem). This lead to a popular type of philosophy that
says our bodies are machines that follow deterministic laws. The body obeys
strictly casual laws, but the person has a soul that is exempt from
determinism. This is known today as casual closure. Another problem arises

from this, on how the mind can cause something physical to happen but be
exempt from casual chains. This can be reversed because the body can
affect the mind with the experience of pain. Idealist philosophers would state
that there is only mind, with matter being a manifestation of the mind (A Final
Solution to the Mind-Body Problem). But this creates more problems, such as completely
denouncing the existence of the universe and instead replacing it with metaphysical world.
This philosophy has proved to be problematic for many modern
philosophers due to being influenced by science. In neuroscience, monitoring
brain activity has helped scientists observe and learn about the correlations
between brain activity and conscious experiences (Mindbody Problem
Wikipedia). This knew sense of physicalism completely denounces Cartesian
Dualism by stating everything can be measured, even the mind. But even
science has a long way to go to explain pure conscious. If it can be mapped
and measured, then consciousness can be reproduced in a non-biological
way. This would completely solve the mind body problem by creating
consciousness and having it ultimately be tangible (Solutions to the MindBody Problem?). The tools of recent science have been probing at the brain,
measuring changes in blood flow in the brain due to neural activity. OET and
fMRI machines are helping humans unlock the secrets of the brain. A simple
explanation would be having a recorder of audio, video, smell, and feelings.
The brain would have a separate recording of all our senses and feelings.
Memories would be all of these synced into a movie, but every movie would
be different for everyone.

Physicalism and materialism have a hard time actually proving the

metaphysical mind-substance due to lacking technology. Currently, the brain
is still largely a mystery, but slowly unraveling its secrets modern science.
Recent neurophilosophers merely consider the mind part of the body,
allowing the shutdown of a metaphysical mind. Some take it further with
stating there is only body, so its a purely reductive physical approach (A Final
Solution to the Mind-Body Problem).

Mind-Body Problem. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2015, from

http://www.informationphilosopher.com/problems/mind_body/

"Mindbody Problem." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindbody_problem>.

The Mind-Body Problem. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2015, from

http://www.philosophy-index.com/philosophy/mind/mind-body.php

Solutions to the Mind-Body Problem? - Science and Religion Today. (n.d.).

Retrieved December 8, 2015, from
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/06/03/solutions-to-the-mindbody-problem/
Taylor, J. (n.d.). A Final Solution to the Mind-Body Problem. Retrieved December 8, 2015, from
http://www.aslab.upm.es/documents/journals/JMT/Vol1-No1/JMT_1_1-FIN-TAYLOR.pdf