The Mind-Body Problem

Is the conscious mind fundamentally distinct from the physical world? If so, then how does the immaterial mind arise out of physical brain which is composed of matter?

Mind Body Problem: Welcome

Proposed Solutions to the Mind-Body Problem

Cartesian Duality

Cartesian duality, also knows as mind-body dualism says that mind and matter are distinct from one another. The subjective and objective world both fundamentally exist separately from each other.

Physicalism

Physicalism argues that mind and matter are made from one substance and that everything that exists is physical. Every subjective experience arises out of interactions between matter.

Idealism

Idealism agrees with physicalism that mind and matter are one substance, but says that the mind is the fundamental substance. Reality exists only in the form of subjective experience.

Neutral Monism

Neutral monism, as the name suggests, takes a neutral approach to the mind body problem; neither mind nor matter are more fundamental. The subjective world and objective world are simply two ways of interpreting the same fundamental reality.

Mind Body Problem: Work

If we want to attempt to resolve the mind/subjectivity vs matter/objectivity debate from a scientific standpoint, a good place to start would be with the science of the mind. Luckily, here in the 21st century, neuroscience exists which studies the material organ that produces the mind.

One specific topic within neuroscience is particularly well suited for our purposes, the dreaming brain. A dream is a state in which the mind becomes isolated from the physical world, subjectivity in the absence of an objective cause (an IGSPE). And if there does turn out to be an objective cause, that cause would have to be attributed to the brain itself, the organ that creates the mind. At that point, further isolating the mind from matter is now beyond the scope of science.

So now that we've found the starting point best suited for our purpose, lets dive straight in to the neuroscience of dreaming.

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF DREAMING

Mind Body Problem: Text