mind-body problem
How thought meets flesh
The mind-body problem is the philosophical question of how mental states relate to physical states—how consciousness, thoughts, and feelings connect to brain activity and bodily processes.
Does the mind emerge from matter, exist separately, or interact with it somehow?
The mind-body problem has puzzled philosophers since Descartes.
The question remains unresolved in philosophy and cognitive science.
- pineal glandMelatonin-secreting brain structure
- dualismPhilosophy of opposed pairs
- ghost in the machineMind separate from body
- rationalismReason as knowledge source
- neuroscienceStudy of nervous systems
René Descartes · metaphysics · qualia · William James · personal identity · mental causation · phenomenology · epistemology · biofeedback · cogito · cognitive science · placebo effect · thought experiment · psychophysics · mental · consciousness · machine · brain
- DescartesDescartes, cogito, rationalism, coordinate plane, coordinate system
- Famous Problemstraveling salesman, Monty Hall, prisoner's dilemma, continuum hypothesis, ship of Theseus
- philosophical themesmeaning of life, morality, good and evil, determinism, nihilism
- philosophy of mindmental states, consciousness, qualia, intentionality, dualism
- 1600s PhilosophyDescartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz
- dualismDescartes, interactionism, ghost in the machine, property dualism, soul