The mind-body problem seems fairly straightforward — it’s where we question the relationship between the physical and observable (our bodies, for example the brain), and the theoretical and untouchable elements like the mind or even the soul.

You might recall from Episode 26, where we discussed the theory of the Forms; that’s one of the earliest examples where questions about what is going on with the body were raised, and whether it is separate from the world of the Forms and limited, unlike the soul. 

But the most famous account is by Rene Descartes, where he argues that the mind was explainable through a part of the brain called the pineal gland; the ‘principal seat of the soul and where all our thoughts are formed’ — the ‘gland makes the spirits move the limbs’, as he wrote in the Treatise of Man and Passions of the Soul. As the mind and body are so different, they cannot be the same thing and work separately. This theory is known as Cartesian dualism or substance dualism, the mind is separate but can influence matter.

So some theories to keep in mind (no pun intended!) — that dualism is where there is a distinction, a separation between mind and matter. Monism is the opposite, where there’s a single reality that can explain it all.

I’ll discuss other theories further in forthcoming episodes.