OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY

ILE-IFE
PHL101: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY I
2020-2021 HARMATTAN SESSION
GBENGA FASIKU & OMOBOLA BADEJO
THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM (1)
MIND-BODY PROBLEM
► The mind-body problem is the problem of explaining how our mental states and mental events are
related to the physical events in our bodies given that the body is physical and the mind is non-physical.
► Contemporary discourse on the mind-body problem usually starts fro Rene Descartes.
► This is because the idea that there are two distinct substances or entities referred to as mind and body,
was made popular by Rene Descartes.
► Prior to Descartes, Plato in his dialogue called Phaedo had identified mind and body as two distinct
entities.
► According to Plato, the distinction is based on the fact that mind is concerned with reason and
understanding while body deals with sensation and passions; and the two entities can exist independently
of each other.
► For Plato, the body is an impediment to the mind; the body imprisons the mind. This is why he enjoins
everyone to attempt to free the mind through contemplation of forms from the shackles of the body.
► Aristotle is also another philosopher who made a distinction between the mind and the body.
► In his work De Anima, Aristotle defined the mind as the active reason or the intellect, that is separate or
independent of the body.
► For Aristotle, while it is possible to destroy the body, the mind cannot be destroyed.
► In the Medieval period, the distinction between the mind and the body was also recognised. For instance,
Saint Thomas Aquinas distinguished between the faculty of reason and faculty of sense.
► According to Aquinas, there is a distinction between the powers that function in and through the organs of
the body, and which in fact therefore are activities of various parts of the body.
► For example, the power of sight in and through the organ of eye, power of hearing in and through the ear on
the one hand (the body), and other powers that do not function through the organ of the body such as the
power of will and intelligence (the mind).
► This shows that the popular view up till Rene Descartes is that the human person consists of the body and
the mind, and both are different in nature and substance.
 RENE DESCARTES ON THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM
► Rene Descartes provided comprehensive arguments and analysis for the claim that the mind and the body
are two distinct substances.
► Descartes supported this claim with three arguments: the dubito argument, the epistemological
argument and the argument from incompatibility thesis.
► In dubito argument, Descartes establishes, through the indubitable truth ‘I think, therefore I am’, that
mind is entirely distinct from, and can even exist without, the body.
► In dubito argument, Descartes argued that the only thing that cannot be doubted is that the human
person is a thinking thing. The existence of the body can be doubted. Hence, cogito ergo sum.
► Cogito ergo sum is a Latin philosophical statement that means ‘I think therefore I am’.
► In epistemological argument, Descartes reinforces the claim that it is easier to know one’s mind than to
know that one has a body.
► In other words, knowledge of the self, as a conscious being, is epistemologically important than the
knowledge of the external world.
► In the incompatibility thesis, Descartes notes that the features or properties of the mind are it is a
thinking thing, a conscious thing, it is free, it is known directly, it is non-extended, it is indivisible and
indestructible.
► The properties of the body are it is a non-thinking thing, a non-conscious thing, it is not free, it is
known indirectly, it is extended, it is divisible and destructible.
► With these distinct properties, Descartes argued that the two substances are quite different.
► The problem of how to explain how something that is indestructible (mind) can exist in something that
is destructible (body). How something that has no shape or form and is non-extended (mind) can exist in
something that has shape and form and is extended (body).
► The mind-body problem is summarised in the words of John Searle, “What exactly are the relations
between the mental and the physical, and in particular how can there be causal relations between
them?
► It seems impossible that there should be causal relations between two completely different
metaphysical realms, the physical realm of extended material objects and the mental or spiritual realm
of minds or souls.
► How does anything in the body cause anything in the mind?
► How does anything in the mind cause anything in the body? Yet, it seems we know that there are causal
relations. We know that if somebody steps on my toe, I feel a pain even though his stepping on my toe is just
a physical event in the physical world, and my feeling of pain is a mental event that occurs inside my mind
► How can such things happen? I decide to raise my arm, an event that occurs inside my conscious soul, and, lo
and behold, my arm goes up.
► How can a decision in my soul cause a movement of a physical object in the world such as my body?
► This is the most famous problem that Descartes left us, and it is usually called the “mind-body problem.”
► Various attempts have been made to solve this problem.
► One is to argue that the universe is indeed made up of two kinds of things. This is the philosophical position
called dualism.
► There are two types of dualism. These are substance dualism and properties dualism.
► Substance dualism is the idea that the world divides into two different kinds of substances or entities that can
exist on their own. This is exemplified in most of the positions on mind and body earlier considered.
► Property dualism is the position that there might be one substance in the universe, but there are two kinds
of properties.
► Contrary to dualism is monism which is the idea that what appears to be two is in reality one.
► There are two types of monism. The first is materialist monist, which says that all that exists is material
or physical entities.
► The second is idealist monist, which holds that all that exists are ideas or mental entities.
► Following the above, several opposing philosophical theories have been developed in response to the
mind body problem. We will now highlight some of them.
► In the next class, we will examine some dualist theories briefly.