Benjamin Hewett

Intro to Philosophy
Philosophy Problem Paper
4/28/2016
The Mind-Body Dilemma
Human beings are amazing creatures. As humans, we have bodies that allow us to do
many things. We can play video games with our fingers. We can smell flowers with our noses.
We can see the beauty of nature. We can listen to our favorite music. We can taste our favorite
foods. This all goes back to the brain. Some claim this can go back to mind or soul. With this
claim, comes a problem. In the following paragraphs, I will describe the problem in detail, give a
few solutions to the problem, and critique these solutions.
First, I shall describe the mind-body problem. The mind-body problem deals with relation
and interaction of the mind and the body (McLeod). There are many versions of this problem,
but one important version comes from Rene Descartes. Descartes claims that the body and the
mind are two separate and opposite things. According to Descartes, he was a thinking thing. He
has certain modes like understanding, sense perceiving, and agreeing that can only be applied to
minds. Other modes like shape and motion can only be applied to the body. Humans are a
combination of both and therefore the mind causes motion in the body and that motion can bring
sensations to the mind. For example, we decide to eat something like chocolate and in return we
taste the sweetness with the tongue and that taste is put into the mind making us realize that what
we just ate was sweet. Deciding to eat the chocolate is the cause from the mind and the eating of
the chocolate is the effect that happened to the body. Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and Pierre
Gassendi had a problem with this. In order for this causation to happen, the mind would need to
come in contact with the body. To have contact, there must be two surfaces. However, the mind
does not have a surface to interact with the body in order to cause it to move. Along with this

problem of mind-to-body causation, is the problem of body-to-mind causation. If the tasting of

the tongue is only of the body and the sensation of sweetness is only of the mind, they would
need to make contact in order to pass the information. And in order to make contact, they both
would need a surface, which the mind does not have because it is non-extended. This causes
Descartes a very serious problem. Since the mind and body cant interact if the mind is nonextended and the body is extended, the mind would have to be extended because it would need a
surface and would need to make contact with the body to cause the body to move and to feel the
sensations from the movement. This challenges Descartes claim that he understands the mind
clearly without the body (Skirry). The mind-body problem prompts S.A. McLeod from
simplypsychology.org to ask, is the mind part of the body, or the body part of the mind? If they
are distinct, how do they interact? And which of the two is in charge? Many psychologists and
philosophers have tried to answer these very questions.
One of the arguments that deal with the relationship between the mind and the body is
dualism. This is the category that Descartes falls under. Dualism argues that the mind and body
are two separate entities. There is a two way interaction between the two and this happens and
the pineal gland (McLeod). This coincides with Descartes saying that it is a false idea that two
different substances cannot act on one another. Descartes points out that something less real
cannot create something more real. The most real thing is God, an infinite substance. The finite
substance is the next most real and it only requires God to exist. The least real are the modes of
things like the mind and body because they require both the infinite and finite substances to
exist. This means that finite substances can create other finite substances and modes. Since the
mind and the body are finite substances that can create modes to be in other finite substances,
they dont violate the causal relationship. This also shows that the mind doesnt need to make

contact with the body to do something. This means that the mind and body do not interact with
each other in a mechanical way (Skirry). Although Descartes and his fellow dualists may have
found one way for the body and mind to interact with each other, the monists have another
explanation for the interaction between the mind and body.
Another solution to the mind-body problem comes from the monists. There are two types
of monists. The first type of monist is the materialist (McLeod). Materialists believe that the
mind can be attributed to matter and mental states to states of the brain (Banach). They believe
that only the physical world exists and that mental processes can be identified with purely
physical processes in the central nervous system (McLeod). This is similar to the idea of
epiphenomenalism where the mental states or events are caused by physical states or events in
the brain but do not themselves cause anything (Walter). In other words, what we do causes us
to have thoughts, but our thoughts do not cause us to act. For example, if I eat a candy bar,
physical processes will happen in the brain to have it think that I am eating something sweet. The
other type of monist is phenomenalists. They believe that the physical comes back down to
mental objects. Only ideas exist. Our body is only a perception of the mind according to Bishop
George Berkeley (McLeod). With both of these ideas, the mechanical problem with the mind
needing to make contact with the body is gone because you either have the body or the mind.
Since I have both dualism and monism as solutions to the mind-body problem, I can now discuss
the problems with both.
The dualistic solution to the mind-body problem has a few difficulties. One of these
problems is the idea that all we have in this world seems to be physical objects. The wind is
physical. Water is physical. Our bodies are physical. However, the soul is non-physical. If the
world is only physical, then the mind cannot exist because it is not physical. This leads into my

next problem. We have perceptions of physical things, but we dont have any perception of the
mind itself. We cannot see it. We cannot feel it. We cannot hear it. We cannot taste it. We cannot
smell it. It is beyond our perception because it is non-physical. If we dont have any perception
of it, then we cant be sure if we really have it. The dualistic may have some problems, but so
does the monistic solution.
The monistic solution to the mind-body problem also has its problems. First, I will
criticize epiphenomenalism. This claims that the mind does not control the body, but our mind
reacts to the body. However, in my experience, my body has also reacted due to me thinking and
willing to do something. For example, I will myself to eat a chocolate bar and my body will pick
it up, unwrap, bring it to my mouth and then I will bite it. Or, I can also refuse to eat the candy
bar even though it may be tempting. My other argument against materialism is the fact that there
may be a spirit or a ghost in real life. There are many shows and groups that look for the
supernatural like spirits and ghosts and they come across people that deal with the place they are
collecting evidence at. For example, they will find ghosts of soldiers at a civil war battleground.
If the evidence is enough, this might prove that humans have something other than the human
body that causes us to perceive. Now that I have criticized the material view, I shall criticize the
phenomenal view. My argument against this view is the fact that if we only perceive things as
being real, then there is no permanence and things not being perceived would disappear until we
perceived them again. This goes against our logical thinking. We know that if we leave our room
and no one goes in it, it will still be there because we know that things dont just disappear if we
stop perceiving them. This is why I think monism has its limits when answering the mind-body
problem.

In conclusion, the mind-body problem deals with the idea that the mind and body cant
interact because of their two different natures and they need to make contact with one another.
Dualism offers the solution that these two can still interact with them being different because
they are of the same level of real. My argument against is that our world is physical and we
cannot perceive our own mind. We have no proof of said mind. The materialist view is of
epiphenomenalism and that there is only the physical. This can be argued against because we
control our minds and there may be proof of ghosts. The final solution is idealism where only
ideas exist. This argument has its limits when we stop perceiving and it goes against logic
because we know that if we stop perceiving something, it will still be there. These problems
show that we still have some more thought to put into the solution the mind-body dilemma.

Works Cited
Banach, David. "Views On The Relationship Between Mind And Body."Www.anselm.edu. N.p.,
2006. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.

McLeod, S. A. (2007). Mind Body Debate. Retrieved

from www.simplypsychology.org/mindbodydebate.html. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Skirry, Justin. "Rene Descartes: The Mind-Body Dinstinction." Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Walter, Sven. "Epiphenomenalism." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
Apr. 2016.