Katana VentraIP

Mind–body problem

The mind–body problem is a philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind and body.[1][2]

It is not obvious how the concept of the mind and the concept of the body relate. For example, feelings of sadness (which are mental events) cause people to cry (which is a physical state of the body). Finding a joke funny (a mental event) causes one to laugh (another bodily state). Feelings of pain (in the mind) cause avoidance behaviours (in the body), and so on.


Similarly, changing the chemistry of the body (and the brain especially) via drugs (such as antipsychotics, SSRIs, or alcohol) can change one's state of mind in nontrivial ways. Alternatively, therapeutic interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy can change cognition in ways that have downstream effects on the bodily health.


In general, the existence of these mind–body connections seems unproblematic. Issues arise, however, once one considers what exactly we should make of these relations from a metaphysical or scientific perspective. Such reflections quickly raise a number of questions like:


These and other questions that discuss the relation between mind and body are questions that all fall under the banner of the 'mind–body problem'.

(2014). The Mind–Body Problem: A Psychobiological Approach. Elsevier. ISBN 978-1-4831-5012-3.

Bunge, Mario

Feigl, Herbert (1958). . In Feigl, Herbert; Scriven, Michael; Maxwell, Grover (eds.). Concepts, Theories, and the Mind–Body Problem. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 2. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 370–457.

"The 'Mental' and the 'Physical'"

(2012). "Line by Line translation on Aristotle's De Anima, Books I and II" (PDF).

Gendlin, E. T.

(2012). "Line by Line translation on Aristotle's De Anima, Book III" (PDF).

Gendlin, E. T.

(1907). Aristotle, De Anima. Cambridge University Press.

Hicks, R. D.

Kim, J. (1995). "Mind–Body Problem", Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Ted Honderich (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jaegwon Kim (2010). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-162506-0.

Essays in the Metaphysics of Mind

Massimini, M.; Tononi, G. (2018). Sizing up Consciousness: Towards an Objective Measure of the Capacity for Experience. Oxford University Press.

(1996). The Body and Society: Exploration in Social Theory.

Turner, Bryan S.

Consciousness Studies at Wikibooks

Plato's Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology - The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Robert M. Young (1996). "The mind–body problem". In RC Olby; GN Cantor; JR Christie; MJS Hodges (eds.). Companion to the History of Modern Science (Paperback reprint of Routledge 1990 ed.). Taylor and Francis. pp. 702–11.  978-0415145787.

ISBN

BBC Radio 4 discussion with Anthony Grayling, Julian Baggini & Sue James (In Our Time, Jan. 13, 2005)

The Mind/Body Problem