The Mind-Body Problem
Physicalism
shows how the mind is connected to the nature of the world. Some examples include emotion, sensations, and information. The mind-body problem is seen as
exploring the relationship between the mind and the body and whether the
phenomenon of the mind is apart from the body or caused by it. Physicalists
believe there is nothing more than brain activity; there is no soul like the
Dualists believe because that would be considered supernatural. In the book
Introduction to Philosophy, Matthew Van Cleave stated, “The mind-body problem
is best thought of not as a single problem but as a set of problems that attach
to different views of the mind.” This is an essential view because it shows how
there can be nothing more to consciousness besides brain activity; the mind
would not be separate from the physical world. With its realistic views,
physicalism shows how one doesn’t need a soul to understand the relationship
between mind and body.
In
society, there are multiple views of what people think happens after one dies.
A person would be considered alive when they present neurological activity, but
after one dies, that goes away. A physicalist would say that the state of being
alive is tied to brain activity. The mind of the person stops functioning if
the brain stops functioning. A counterargument from the dualist perspective is
that the mind does not die; it continues to exist as an entity outside the
brain. One could link this to seeing a car with tinted windows driving around
town, and someone says that the car is driving itself. When the car breaks down
one day, The physicalist is confronted with the driver stepping outside the
vehicle, revealing they were driving the vehicle the entire time. So, it could
be said that the car had a soul guiding its movements the whole time. From a
physicalist perspective, the problem with this analogy is that our brain is not
like a car. No driver steps out of the brain after it is dead.
Another
argument that a physicalist can make is that, over time, people’s
personalities, beliefs, and memories change; with a soul not being physical, it
should not change over time and should remain constant. People do not remain
constant; therefore, that is evidence of there not being a soul. The book A
Philosopher's Quest by Daniel Shaw states that “Physicalism, therefore,
claims that mental states/events are mere brain events.” A counterargument to
this could be that the soul is changeable and, therefore, could change to the
physical form it is attached to. But taking a deeper look into this could lead
to situations where the body taking damage could lead to the soul being damaged
as well. Shaw also states, “Changes in the relevant parts of the brain always
seem to alter the relevant mental states, and all changes in the relevant
mental states seem to go along with changes in the relevant parts of the
brain.” Imagine a situation where someone experiences massive trauma right
before their death. Would their soul be eternally traumatized after?
To
fully understand the effects of mental states and trauma, one could look at the
story of Phineas Gage, the man who survived a metal spike going through the
left frontal lobe of his brain. His personality drastically changed; he went
from being friendly and pleasant to being more aggressive. This offered
neurologists more insight into how brain trauma is linked to personality
change. People often called him not the same person he was before the incident
because he wasn’t the same. Much like with people with dementia, once their
brain activity is altered and their memories and personalities change, they
don’t have the same ideals that they once held. A physicalist would say that
his personality changed because the rod went through the temporal lobe, a part
of the brain that controls emotions. A dualist would think that if there are
damaged brain structures, the mind can’t force a broken brain to express
feelings controlled by damaged parts of the brain. The physicalist argument is
correct because many scientific examples show how additional brain damage
causes different brain behaviors. The dualist could argue that the mind isn’t
changed, but only how it can express itself through the body.
Another
way to look at traumatic injuries is when Phineas Gage suffered brain damage;
his soul also got damaged. This would be the dualist explanation, and it would
also explain that with his suffering a massive trauma before his death, his
soul would be traumatized into an afterlife. Though that does provide some
sense of an explanation, a way that a physicalist would see this situation as
only his brain got damaged; the other parts of his body were seen as fully
functioning. His brain damage did not contribute to any other physical defects
he might’ve had later.
Neuroscientists
have a better understanding of the function of the frontal cortex today. As
stated in the article Phineas Gage: His Accident and Impact on Psychology by
Olivia Guy-Evans, “They understand that the frontal cortex is associated with
language, decision-making, intelligence, and reasoning functions. Gage’s case
became one of the first pieces of evidence suggesting that the frontal lobe was
directly involved in personality.” This is important because it further
investigates why his personality and actions changed after suffering brain
damage. His brain damage could simply explain all the later actions.
Views
on the mind-body problem will likely always be debated in society. Some will
believe that the mind and body are connected, and others will see them as
separate. Each view is important as it investigates the different perspectives
of the argument to gain a deeper understanding. It is often more seen from the
dualist perspective as the body and mind are different, but it would be
beneficial to explore a different idea from the physicalist view where they are
the same. The dualist's answer to the mind-body problem takes for granted
personal experience in favor of a more proper investigation into the evidence.
It makes up supernatural connections that should be quickly stripped from the everyday
vocabulary of society’s mind by the quick but deadly touch of Occam’s razor.
©️The Rosebud Writings
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