The Mind

THE MIND-BNODY RELATIONSHIP
The mind is a set of cognitive faculties such as consciousness, language, judgement, imagination,
thinking, memory, housed in the brain. It is the faculty of a person’s thoughts and consciousness. It
cannot be seen or touched and doesn’t have volume and occupies no space.
The body is a physical thing that can be seen, has weight, volume and occupies space. It is
unconsciousness.
The mind-body relationship is the unique way a human body interacts with its mind. Theories of
this relationship can be divided into two main groups; Dualistic group and Monistic group.
Dualists consider the mind and body as separated, two entities that work and interact with each
other. There are three theories in the Dualistic group; interactionism, parallelism and
epiphenomenalism.
According to the theory of interactionism, the mind and body interact with each other. For
example, we can think of something, thinking is an event that occurs in the mind, and there is a physical
reaction in our body. As example, you can think of closing your eyes (an action which occurs in the mind)
and this leads to your eyelids closing (a physical response in your body). Meanwhile a physical action can
also lead to a mental response e.g., doing very hard work (a physical action) can lead to tiredness and
sleepiness (a mental response).
According to some dualists, the mind and boy seem to interact but in effect do not. This lead to
development of the parallelism. Several philosophers postulate parallelism in different ways. A version
of parallelism called occasionalism is defended by Malebranche. It agrees that the mind and body are
separated but explains the interactions in a different way. According to this version, God intercedes if
there is a need for the body and mind to interact. For example, if you cut yourself with a knife, God is
aware and makes the person (mind) feel pain. In a similar way, if a person wants to lift a leg, it’s a
though that occurs in the mind and God informs the body and the leg is lifted. Another parallelist theory
by Leibniz states that the body and mind interact in a pre-established harmony created by God. They
seem to interact but do not actually interact with each other. Like two identical clocks, they’ll always be
in agreement because of the pre-existing harmony between them but will never interact.
According to epiphenomenalism, the mind only exists because the brain (the body) exists. Like a
radio signal can’t exist without the emitter. For there to be the radio signal, the emitter must exist. And
so the mind does not directly affect the body since it is a by-product of the body and only the body has
the power to affect the mind. Just like a radio signal cannot affect the emitter but the emitter can
determine the type and strength of radio signals it emits.
Looking at the Monist Group, they suggest that the mind and body are not separate. They also
have three theories; Materialism, Double-aspectism and Idealism.
Materialism is the notion that only physical matter is real and the body is governed strictly by
material, non-mental causes. Mechanical materialists deny the existence of anything immaterial such as
the mind. Others accept the existence of the mind but liken it to the brain. Hence the mind has no
causal effect on the physical body. For example, if I think of moving my arm, I only move it because
there have been some physical processes originating from the brain (the body) that leads to the action
being produced and has nothing to do with the mind.
Double Aspectism, the mind body are separate but form one body, the state of being human.
We have the thinking substance which is the mind and the extended substance which is the body. Their
interaction is explained by Spinoza. According to Spinoza, the mind and body function in tandem.
Whatever happens to one happens to the other without a direct interaction, but by the mediation of
God who forms the single substance.
Idealism stipulates that what we experience through our senses depends on how our minds
perceive it. So it stipulates that only thoughts and ideas conceived in the mind can be immediately
experienced as we cannot have access to external reality. For example, if you believe that something is
true and if it comes from within you, uninfluenced by external factors, then it becomes your reality.

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THE MIND-BNODY RELATIONSHIP

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