Description
The relationships between the body and the mind have intrigued many people for hundreds of years. About three centuries ago. Descartes, the French scientist and philosopher, set the scene for subsequent controversy by separating spatial substance, or matter, from thinking substance, or mind.
This dualism, of mind and matter, tended to divide the physical sciences from philosophy and psychology, so that progress on these two fronts of human knowledge has been in parallel rather than convergent.
In other words, the separateness of mind and body has been accepted as though each were a distinct entity without dependence of one upon the other. Yet it is obvious to even the most superficial inquiry that they are inextricably interdependent.
The body, especially if it is diseased, may affect the way you feel emotionally and may disturb rational thought, as is the case, for example, with a high fever. Drugs, physical matter, are used to alter mental states. It is a mental state which determines that you shall get up out of a chair, and yet that is a physical act of the body.
What happens at the boundary between body and mind? Is there in fact a boundary at all? Is it just that certain very complex physical phenomena are labelled mental, and less complex ones are labelled as physical?
This is the position of the materialistic philosophers. Both dualists and materialists bring philosophical problems upon themselves, but these are not the concern of this book.
ISBN:TIMEPRESENTST
