'Mind Body Problem Essay\r'

'Why is the sound judgment/ consistency fuss within Philosophy of Mind and Consciousness studies thusly a line? Well the head proboscis worry is a meta sensual pop out rough the relationship between what is mental and what is physical. (â€Å" take c atomic number 18- dust problem,” 2009). I recollect that this issue is and will encompass to be a problem until on that point is enough show to in full farm wizard hypothesis or contradict all tho 1 of these theories from being dependable. At this point in time I assemble that the monistic approach of materialism best sums up the instinct clay relationship as it turn ups that either function supervenes on, or is necessitated by, the physical(Stoljar, 2009).\r\nTo put it in simpler depots relevant to the learning efficiency body problem the humouriac is a physical part of the body. I feel this way as it currently has the most bread and butter evidence. The other chief(prenominal) beguile on the straits body problem is dualism and its possibility of fundamental interactionism which holds that mind and body, though separate and diaphanous substances, causally interact. (â€Å"interactionism,” 2009). It isn’t the numerous theories that cause this mind body problem to be such a problem though it’s the evidence supporting these theories that makes this a highly debated publication as depending on your viewpoint the evidence could support multiple theories at once.\r\nThis makes deciding what can be classed as evidence for and against different system’s very difficult. The term materialism, fewtimes called central-state materialism, asserts that states of the mind be identical to states of the gracious outlook(â€Å"materialism,” 2009). Scientific testing has shown that when people be asked to pick up doing authoritative tasks mentally that specific areas of the brain are stimulated. They tested this on numerous people and tack tha t in all of the subjects the mental stimulation caused certain areas of the brain to become active.\r\nTwo years agone Adrian Owen published an article in Science in which he used fMRI (functional magnetic rapport imaging) to examine the brain function of a offspring woman in an apparent vegetative state. During the take aim she was asked to either imagine herself playing tennis or to imagine herself walking through her house. These 2 hard-hitting thoughts forced distinct patterns of activation on the fMRI The basis ‘physicalism’ and ‘materialism’ are inter turnable. But the two terms have very different histories(Egnor, 2006). t is this such research that points in the direction of answer this mind body problem and emerging with one clear truth as to how the mind and body coexist.\r\nThe term ‘materialism’ is very old, but the newsworthiness ‘physicalism’ was introduced into philosophy only in the mid-thirties by Otto Ne urath (1931) and Rudolf Carnap (1932)(Stoljar, 2009). People fight that this new termanology has abeted to more than clearly define the concept as materalism refered to military issue which is still a relativly indefinable substance whereas physicalism refers to the physical which is a very clearly define substance.\r\nThe idea of physicalism is that everything exists in the physical consciousness even feelings and thoughts have a physical blood according to this theory. So when the antecedently mentioned study use a fMRI to scan the brain as people are thinking gives evidence of thoughts occurring as similar brain states among a large chemical group of people including people in a â€Å"vegatative state” gives hope that this proplem could be resolved quicker than previously expected.\r\nDualism proposes this idea of interactionism in which the mind and body are separate stock-still they causally interact was initiatory proposed by Rene Descartes who could not sati sfactorily explain how the interaction takes place, apart from the speculation that it occurs in the pineal gland(â€Å"interactionism,” 2009). This of couse was afterwards proven to be false as the accredited function of the pineal gland was discovered but the theory still remains that the mind and body are separate.\r\nOne of the lessons given for this theory is that if you where to interest a flame your body would severalise your mind that it was in pain then your mind would distinguish your body to move your hand and thitherfore your mind and body are causally linked. But in real life if you put your hand in to a flame accidentally your body wouldn’t wait for your mind to register what had happened an then tell you to remove your hand that’s why humanness have unquestionable reflexes which happen at a spinal level the signal never reaches the brain or mind to be acted upon.\r\nThis does serve to help both arguments though as a dualist would arue that this proves that the body and mind are separate but a monist would argue that the mind although physical encompasses a minute part of the brain and isnt involved in every decision that you make for example breathing and your titty beat which proves that this example of dualism at work is blemished and suppports both arguments. This is why without hard evidence there will always be a mind body problem.\r\nThe identity theory of mind holds that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain. â€Å"Identity Theory,” 2009). The montreal procedure developed by Dr. Wilder Penfield in the 1940’s in which the patient was given a local anaesthetic(a) so they would remain conscious during the operation. Penfield then out tooshie(a) the skull cap to expose the brain tissue. As he probed the brain, the patient could describe his feelings. This technique also allowed Dr. Penfield to create maps of the sensory and motor sections of the brain , showing their connections to the various limbs and organs of the body.\r\nThis technique is quoted extensivly to back up monistic theories that the mind and brain are one due to the magnate of Dr. Penfield to accuratly map areas of the brain to specific regions such as speech, sensory and sight(â€Å"Dr. Wilder Penfield,” 2006). But a dualist would argue that although the states and process are identical and that different regions are responsible for different areas of the body it does not prove by any stretch of the term that the brain and mind are one.\r\nIt mearly states that they are doing the very(prenominal) thing at the corresponding time which could just as easily be an argument for parallelism. This I accept is one of the reasons why this mind body problem will always be a problem, as there are so many inter-linking theories that without difinitive check of one theory being true there will always be a problem. As you can se from this paper there are many diffe rent theories and all have some form of evidence to back up their plead of being the correct theory.\r\nBut at the same time the evidence given for one theory in most cases can also be used as evidence for another theory all depending on how you look at it. Which I one of the reasons that the mind body problem is a problem. As evidence is given to support one claim but if you shift your viewpoint that same piece of factual evidence then becomes evidence for a different theory. Now the evidence dosent change but the viewpoint does and this is what causes one of the problems. The other issue is the ammount of theories there are and that new theories are unendingly being made.\r\nTake the case of physicalism for example physicalism is a relative new theory based on an old theory yet they are basically the same. So you can see that this stream new theories are being produced and the ability of multiple different theories to share evidence to back up their claim all depending on what v iew point you have on a topic is what I think makes the mind body problem such a problem. This problem will continue to be debated until someone can prove without a shadow of a doubt that their theory is true which will take a while.\r\n'