Whenever any philosophers come together to talk about mind and body, they refer to it as the mind and body problem. They think of it as a problem because ever since this idea was first introduced no one has arrived at an answer that everyone can agree on. “Either everything is material and mind is an illusion. Or everything is mental, and the material body is an illusion. Or there are both minds and bodies, distinct by reacting on one another.” (Thompson, Mel pg. 83). You may say to your self “whatever, who really cares?” but in reality this is possibly one of the most important questions of our time; the question of mind and body. Despite many years and many extensive arguments by various philosophers, the debate between which concept is correct still plagues many philosophers minds. 

There are three basic, but major concepts one must cover when talking about the mind and body problem. All three concepts have to do with metaphysics; materialism, dualism, and idealism. Materialism is the belief that everything is materialistic, if it can not be measured in one way or another than it does not exist. People who believe in materialism tend to be atheistic; this is because they do not think it is possible that immaterial things can exist. Dualists believe that both material and immaterial things can exist together even though they are entirely different entities. Idealism is the belief that everything is made up of ideas, nothing actually exists as a physical property. Idealism has become a less influential concept in today’s philosophy due to its hard to believe beliefs.

Materialists have the tendency to follow wherever science takes them (eventually science will explain everything), because of this they have adapted the idea of cause and effect; do something and something else will happen. This brings us to materialism’s solution to the mind and body problem; “Mental states can be completely explained in terms of physical states. Physical states are more fundamental than mental states.” The same book gives this analogy: “Consider the relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Mark Twain. Each of them has various properties. However, if Mark Twain had never been born than Huckleberry Finn would not exist today.” (Raught, Nils Pg. 201). Huckleberry Finn is ontologically dependant on Mark Twain. Mental states work very much the same way, mental states are ontologically dependant on physical states. In other words your body needs to react to something physically before anything can be processed through the brain. Materialists believe that the brain is electro magnetic, when something does happen physically to the body neurons begin to fire in the brain, creating your thoughts and reactions.

Another idea materialists have is the evolution theory. Humans actually started as a single celled organism. From there humans evolved in to what we are now. This is done by constantly adapting to your surroundings. They ask the question, what separates us from the animal kingdom? If we are all only highly evolved animals, and animals have no souls than how is it possible for us to have souls or minds.

Humans are nothing more than an intricate, organic piece of machinery (like a clock), wind it up and away it goes. The brain operates the machine while the body does all the work.

Dualists have always felt that there is more to the world than just material, another aspect that can not be explained through science; the immaterial. Ask any materialists about this and they will probably laugh at the very idea, but to dualists the immaterial is as or more important than the material aspects of the universe. Dualists argue that just because minds and bodies are two very different substances (material and immaterial) does not make one any less real than the other.

For example, apples and oranges can exist independently of one another just as the mind can exist independently of the body. They are totally different from one another; however, they can still exist at the same time. Though people have criticized dualism’s argument for the mind and body problem calling it the “Ghost in the machine” (Ryle, Gilbert “The Concept of The Mind”), Dualist’s still stand by their argument stating that minds are ontologically independent from bodies. (Philosophy for Dummies/ The Big Questions)

We unlike animals are intelligent beings giving us the ability to look within ourselves. We can monitor our inner states. Though these feelings within, or inner states are forms of “transcendent awareness mediated by the physical”, the mind still remains “altogether distinct from any physical thing” (Morris, Tom Pg. 165). 

Have you ever wondered why you can think of your mind existing without your body, floating around in the air for example, but can not picture your body existing freely without your mind? This is because of the minds ontological independence of the body. This according to St Thomas Aquinas “holds that each person’s immaterial soul survives that person’s bodily death. However, a person does not thereby survive death because the person that one is necessarily embodied if it may be proved that the mind is the soul and also proved that the soul is immortal, and then it is proved that the mind is something distinct from the body because the body is mortal.” (Priest, Stephen Pg. 3)

Another Dualistic argument is intentionality argument. If you think for a moment of a mental property that no physical object could have. You could have in your mind the intention to go exercise later. You intend to walk, bike, or lift weights. In fact you only intend to do one or two of those activities. At that extent it would seem my intent is very vague. Can a brain event be vague? Does that even make any sense? Philosophers call this intentionality, thinking about something you are about to do. “Aboutness” has no physical states or events among neurons in the brain that have any physical properties for “aboutness”, nor can you measure it, it must be a property of the mind. (Morris, Tom Pg. 179)

Imagine witnessing you death and you do not believe in the concept of your soul. You are put underground where maggots eat your insides and that is the untimely end of yourself. This is not how most people want to picture themselves after they die. That is why many people are now turning to dualism. Your soul lives on long after your bodily death bringing you to a magical place outside of space and time, heaven.  

Idealism, for what its worth, is fairly irrelevant in today’s theories on mind and body since the concept of idealism is so far fetched and hard to believe. However it is still a major aspect of metaphysics and for that has found a way into this essay. Idealists believe that there is no such thing as material. Everything is made up of ideas; therefore the body and any thing else you think is material is in fact just an idea, thought, or perception from your mind.

“The existence of my leg, for example, is ontologically dependent on the fact that I think that I have a leg?” (Rauhut, Nils Pg. 203). For your leg to exist your mind would have had to thought or perceived that your leg was actually there, everything material actually exists within consciousness. Therefore there is no difference between your mind and body in the idealistic point of view because your body was in fact thought up by your mind.

However, when you really get down to it there are many more problems with idealism than solutions. Most of the ideas or concepts put out by idealist are extremely hard to believe because they are so far fetched. The only people crazy enough to believe in idealism are the people who thought of it, philosophers. For this reason alone idealism’s argument on the mind and body problem is rather irrelevant in today’s philosophical discussions.

As you can see every metaphysical concept has its own beliefs and arguments on the mind and body problem, and reality for that matter. However because everyone has a different opinion on the mind and body matter, no one has been able to arrive at a solution that everyone can agree on. This may unfortunately never happen due to everyone’s major belief differences. What it all comes down to is that it is not just some question you should shrug your shoulders at and say “whatever, I’ll leave it to the professionals”. This is something we all have to ask ourselves because it is one of the most important questions of our time. The question of mind and body.