Explain dualism about mind/body and explain the major problems for that view - Essay Example

Dualism and Mind Philosophy views mind in a relatively different manner and the set of views which identify the relationship between mind as well asthe matter is described as dualism. Though the concept may seem simpler however, on a deeper level, it requires a broader understanding of the relationship between the two and how philosophy has actually been able to explain it. One of the major issues which dualism deals with is whether mind is the part of the brain or whether it is completely separate from the brain.

There are different opinions on this issue however, the debate is still undecided as to whether mind originates from the brain or it is completely separate from it. Some argue that though mind is a thinking thing however, it lacks the physical attributes which are experienced by the matter. This view therefore also outlines that both the mind as well as the body affects each other and mind remains the major force in determining what body has to do. It is argued that the most basic form of dualism is the substance dualism which outlines that mind and body are composed of two different substances.

The substance is often referred to something which can have its own independent existence. There are other forms of dualism also including occassionalism as well as parallelism with occassionalist view holds that mind and body actually exist independent and they do not interact with each other. Parallelism view is however, different from what is generally perceived. One of the most important works in this direction has been done by Rene Descartes holding the view that the mind as well as matter mingle with each other at a certain point.

He argues that though body and mind are two distinct entities however, they occasionally interact with each other and thus each one has relative influence on other when they interact. He was of the view that this interaction between the mind and body actually happened through a gland present in the human brain. He also made this distinction based upon the principle of indivisibility wherein he argued that body itself is divisible whereas mind is indivisible. He borrowed this from the Leibniz’s work which outlined the similarity between the two objects based on their properties.

It is however, important to note that there has been important criticism against dualism specifically in the realm of its inability to comply with the natural laws. It is argued that it defies the law of conservation of energy while at the same time it also does not corroborate the human development. The lack of complying with the principle of conservation of energy therefore also defies the principles of interaction as the interaction between the mental as well as physical substances would be a practical impossibility in the absence of this compliance with the law of conservation of energy.

There is also an issue of other minds as it is believed that if mind cannot be publically observed, it can be inferred that other minds exist too.