Spinoza's Interpretation Of The Mind-Body Problem

Takes on the mind-body problem

1. Double Aspectism:

We see Mind and body as inseparable yet distinguishable. There is a separate mind and body as cognitive skills, experiences and memories can be distinguished from physical aspects. The separate mind and body are two parts of the aspects of the human body.

Spinoza explained it in this manner: "thinking substance (the mind) and extended substance (the body) are one and the same thing." The ultimate substance for Spinoza was God. This interpretation of the mind- body problem was least clear for us as the existence of god has not yet been proven.

2. Epiphenomenalism

The mind is thought to be a by-product of the physical brain. Just the biologically proven activities like the firing of the neurons

Idealism In this theory, what we think as to be real is restricted by the contents like memories, experiences and prior observations of our own mind. The observations of our senses are modified by how our mind perceives it. So we cannot have access to the higher reality. It is like we can experience thoughts that originate in our mid immediately.

Idealism is a contrasting theory to the theory of materialism. It states that the ultimate reality is the physical, spatial and factual domain. Comparison has been made between the Plato's theory of forms and idealism, even though the forms were not restricted to the mind but existed independently of it.

4. Interactionism

The body is affected by the mind sometimes or vice versa. The body and the mind are separate, and they have connection so they affect one another. Descartes laid the groundwork here. We are physical beings because we are extended in space. We are mental beings because we think.

Interestingly enough, the famous Descartes' words, "I think, therefore I am”, highlight this belief. Although the way her proved this had many flaws (as we pointed out in the first section of our report), the groundwork for interactionism is still the same.

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Body is governed by strictly material, non- mental causes. Mental properties have no effect on the physical body. Devoted materialists might strictly deny the existence of anything mental. Others might say that the mind exists, but view it to be identical to the brain.

The earliest exponents of something resembling materialism were the Greeks, Democritus and Aristotle. A special category of materialism is epiphenomenalism, the view that the mind is a by-product of physical processes.

6. Occasionalism It gives forward the vague view that God is controlling us, and when the mind gives the body some instruction, or vice versa, God makes it happen. There is no explanation as to how mind and body are related. But in this theory the reason is god. When our minds says that it want to pick up that book, the Lord intervenes and makes the body move and pick up the book lying on the table.

17th Century French philosopher, Nicolas Malbranche popularized. The problem with this theory is that it assumes beforehand that there is a God, and also he has time to control and monitor everybody on the earth.

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