Inconsistent Triad and Mind-Body Dualism (Philosophy) - Essay Example

One of the best answers to this triad that Mind-Body Dualists can draw forth is epiphenomenalism, which argues that the mind and body are indeed separate, but cannot interact. Although this argument does not one hundred percent clear up all concerns, it does more or less satisfy the argument—the brain is then a physical object which controls the physical body, and the mind exists nonphysically but does not interact. There have been many ways of thinking about the interactions between the mind and the body throughout human history.

Two of these are Dualism and Materialism. Dualism is the belief that “the body is material (physical) the mind is immaterial (nonphysical)” (text 59). In other words, our body is ruled by the laws of physics, or whatever law people thought existed at the time, and our mind is not ruled by that law. Instead, it stands above the law or apart from it in a spiritual or mental realm. On the other side of the coin is Materialism, a philosophy which holdes that “both minds and bodies are physical things” (text 59).

According to a Materialist understanding of things, our minds are actually only caused by electrochemical processes in the brain which make it seem as though we are conscious. One of the strongest challenges to the ancient Dualistic belief is our Modern understanding of science and the physical world. Both these things “underwent a dramatic change in the seventeenth century” (text 60), leaving us with a much better idea of how things exist and what our place in the world is. We also now obviously have a much clearer science in regards to how the human brain processes and creates information.

Drawing on our understanding especially of physical laws, chapter 5 of the text presents a strong challenge to Mind-body Dualist beliefs of a separate-but-equal non-physical mind. This challenge is an inconsistent triad, a sort of philosophical logic puzzle An