Modified: 2013-12-28
What is the mind-body problem? Descartes helped to define it when he noted that if he amputated his foot, he had affected his physical body, but had not affected his mind. He did not offer to sever his head, but Dennett (1978) has speculated about what might happen should one's brain be transferred to another body. Science fictional accounts have also explored such transfers. Those speculations get to the heart of the mind-body problem, namely where does reality lie? Descartes backed into his famous existence proof, cogito ergo sum, while attempting to decide whether the physical world existed at all, and when he realized that he was thinking he also realized there must be a thinker. So, the mind-body problem has to do with reality and with perceptions of reality.
Most of us would agree that a physical world exists: We can perceive it, and we can agree as to its manifestations. Also, most of us believe that we think. Part of the problem is that we cannot agree as to the contents of others' minds like we can agree to the nature of the physical world. Another issue is that we cannot fully know our own mind. That is the problem of introspection, and is the problem that led to the fall of structuralist accounts of psychology. Still another problem is the issue of animal minds. Whereas we have some hope of knowing part of the contents of another human's mind, we have no hope of knowing the contents of animal minds because the specific differences are so great. These are some of the many aspects of the mind-body problem.
Descartes' doubts about the reality of the physical world haunt us still. Let's suppose for a moment that the world was created yesterday, and that everything that you remember is, in fact, not true. Instead, those memories were placed in your mind at the moment of creation. How would you know the difference? In Dick's story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, later made into the movie "Bladerunner", Dick explored such thoughts. In the movie, set in the near future, biotechnology has succeeded in creating stronger and smarter human beings. But, if they are smarter and stronger, what is to prevent them from taking over? A four-year life span is the answer. The replicants, as they are called, are created as adults, and die after four years of life. To prevent problems in control of the replicants, the latest models have been given false memories of childhood as well as a handful of souvenirs of their childhood. Dick speculates, is that not all we have too? In the more recent movie, Total Recall, based on one of Dick's short stories, similar themes are exploited. The main character thinks that by having his brain altered, he can enjoy a two-week vacation on Mars. However, such vacations are merely alterations of memory accompanied by a few souvenirs. Again, are not our vacations reducible to that? Finally, consider the horror of amnesia, or loss of memory. Inability to recall our past, retrograde amnesia, would render us fairly helpless, as would inability to store new memories, anterograde amnesia. We depend heavily, whether we realize it or not, on the mental representations we make of the physical world. The question now turns to the relationship of the mind and body.
Again we turn to Descartes. Descartes posited an interactionist solution to the mind-body problem, meaning that each affected the other. The effects of that solution have been explored above. But, other solutions exist, and they can be divided into monist or dualist categories. Interactionism is a dualist solution because it includes both mind and body. Other dualist solutions exist, and they vary primarily in the relationship of the mind and body. Monist solutions include only mind or body. Idealism posits only the existence of the mind, materialism only of the body. Idealists are hard to find, but materialists are not so rare.
Have you thought about the mind-body problem? Probably not in so many words. Think about it. Think about the things that make you reach decisions. Do you think of yourself as an independent agent in the world? Or, do you think of yourself as a pawn in a gigantic game of chess, controlled by forces beyond your control? Now that you know a little bit about the problem, can you identify your solution?