The Body-Soul Relationship

• Descartes Interactionism


  Suggested that the pineal gland was the point at which the mind controlled the body
• Modern anatomy shows pineal gland to be associated with the production of melatonin, which regulates sleep rhythms
• Three main approaches to the mind body problem

  • Descartes Interactionism (Dualism)
  • Physicalism: Functionalism (Hard materialism)
  • Dual Aspect Monism
• Descartes Interactionism (Dualism)


  • Suggested that the pineal gland was the point at which the mind controlled the body
• Hard Materialism/Physicalism


  There is no body-soul relationship, everything can be explained by matter, the 'soul' is not needed
• Functionalism


  One type of physicalism that sees the mind in terms of what it does, a system that processes information inputted from sense experience & it then generates an appropriate outcome
• There is no reason why in the future the mind could not be uploaded onto a different 'platform' from the human brain, e.g. a computer
• Richard Dawkins: 'Religious belief in ideas such as the immortality of the soul have no sound basis. They are beliefs based on wish fulfilment for those who lack courage, who fear death and who cannot cope with the idea of their own mortality.'
• Humans are nothing more than survival machines, completely discounting the idea that humans have any kind of soul
• Humans like other living creatures are the vehicles of genes, human beings do not have immortal souls and are simply a mixture of chemicals
• Humans cannot survive death, the only sense in which they survive is through the memories of them in others, or through their genes
• Genes are 'potentially immortal' and the body's role is to be a 'survival machine' for genes
• Human beings do not have immortal souls and are simply a mixture of chemicals
• Consciousness gives the body a greater chance of survival, because of its capacity to innovate, perhaps be creative and more clever. It also enables us to enjoy life (you have to know that you are enjoying something)
• What would support the hard materialism approach?

  What problems can you foresee with this approach?
• Functionalism


  Dualism
• There are major problems with Descartes Interactionism
• Dualism still the most popular religious approach, evidence of Dualism in Near Death Experiences (NDEs)
• The "Hard Problem of Consciousness" is nowhere being solved: the problem of trying to understand the connection between physical changes in the brain & human experience of qualia. Implies Dualism in some form or respect is true.
• Dual Aspect Monism


  • Non-dualist since it holds there is only one substance, neither physicalism since it does not reduce mind to matter, holds that there is only one entity, but it has two aspects of the same substance. Mind & brain are 2 aspects of the same substance. One aspect: First person subjective awareness, so is the perspective of consciousness. Subjective feelings / qualia cannot be known by observing activity of neurons in the brain. Other perspective: Third person objective, observable by science & purely physical.
• What problems does Dual Aspect Monism avoid that are associated with functionalism & substance dualism?

  Is Dual Aspect Monism supported by contemporary science?
• Entities such as quarks are unobservable, yet the 'standard model' of particle physics does not make sense without quarks, so they must exist in some manner. The idea that mind & matter are underpinned by a single, as yet unknown substance is therefore not unlikely.
• Quantum mechanics shows that reality at its basics has a dual-aspect reality, the behaviour of light & electrons is sometimes wave-like & sometimes particle like, exhibiting wave-particle duality, and both can not be observed at the same time, yet together provide a fuller description than either on its own.