The mind-body problem: dualism and its challenges
Your thoughts feel nothing like the neurons that seem to produce them. How can both belong to one world?
Stating the problem
Physical things have mass, location, and size. Mental states, like a feeling of worry or the taste of coffee, seem to have none of these, yet they clearly affect and are affected by the body: a decision moves your arm, and a stubbed toe causes pain. The mind-body problem asks what minds are and how they relate to physical bodies and brains.
Substance dualism
Descartes held that the mind is a non-physical thinking substance, separate from the extended, physical body. He noted that he could doubt that his body existed but not that he was thinking, and concluded that the two must be distinct. Dualism fits the sense that we are more than meat, and leaves room for an afterlife.
The interaction objection
Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia pressed Descartes with a sharp question: if the mind has no physical properties, how can it push the body into motion? Physical causes seem to need contact or force. Dualists have offered answers, but explaining how two utterly different substances interact remains the theory's hardest challenge.
Flashcard
How mental states relate to the physical body
Check your understanding
What is the main objection Elisabeth of Bohemia raised against Descartes' dualism?