The mind-body problem from a medical perspective.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 1986 DOI: 10.1159/000287975 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that interactionism and neural identity are the two most prevalent mind-body theories, while parallelism, panpsychism, epiphenomenalism, central-state materialism, and behaviorism are suspect or unsupported. |
Abstract
Classical philosophical ideas on the mind-body problem were interpreted in the light of contemporary theories. There are two mind-body theories that are suspect for a natural scientist, namely, parallelism and panpsychism. There are three further theories that are considered radical and not supported by current research: epiphenomenalism, central-state materialism and behaviorism. That leaves us with the two most prevalent theories, namely, interactionism and neural identity. The authors discuss the evidence for and against each theory.