They consider the
mind-body problem in philosophy and theology, as well as the role of neuroscience, with discussion ranging from topics like consciousness and human behavior to the Bible.
Yet symbol manipulation is very much an ability of the human mind, possibly a distinctive one, and it would be a shame if contemporary attempts to solve the
mind-body problem by insisting on the embodied nature of consciousness lost sight of this ability.
In fact, scientists and philosophers are far from solving the
mind-body problem (1,8-12).
To be sure, as you'd expect from a philosopher, he has a much deeper grasp of the difficulties the
mind-body problem poses than the biologist Wilson does.
Case in point: the
mind-body problem, which Dilworth views as the "paradigm" philosophical impasse of our age.
Indeed, in LeDoux's view, the
mind-body problem concerns only "an aspect of the mind" (that of consciousness itself), "rather than the whole mind"--a big chunk of which, as already noted, can be ascribed to the unconscious functions of the brain.
Their reasoning results from the familiar Western
mind-body problem stemming from Descartes.
Today's scientists have attacked this
mind-body problem with new theories and experiments designed to tease apart the components of consciousness within the brain (SN: 2/11/12, p.
This argument involves Eagleton in interesting discussions of the
mind-body problem, which he considers a non-issue once you grant that humans are social beings involved with their bodies, and of Marx's spirituality, which, he says, involves "art, friendship, fun, compassion, laughter, sexual love, rebellion, creativity, sensuous delight, righteous anger, and abundance of life," not theology (140).
He frames his task in terms of "the
mind-body problem," or, the discipline of describing the relationship between the psychological and neurological aspects of human self-awareness.
There are, of course, well known objections to identity solutions to the
mind-body problem, as well as arguments against the claim that the identity theory solves the problem of mental causation.
author); THE
MIND-BODY PROBLEM EXPLAINED; Future Psychiatry Press (Nonfiction: Psychology) 34.
