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The Mind-Body Relation: Ancient Western Views

The Mind-Body Relation: Ancient Western Views. Democritus (fl. 450 BCE ). Lucretius (94-55 BCE ). Materialism: all things (including minds/souls & mental events) are bodies in motion. Dualism : the soul is an immortal life force distinct from the body; its search for truth is moral desire.

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The Mind-Body Relation: Ancient Western Views

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  1. The Mind-Body Relation: Ancient Western Views Democritus (fl. 450BCE) Lucretius (94-55 BCE) • Materialism: all things (including minds/souls & mental events) are bodies in motion • Dualism: the soul is an immortal life force distinct from the body; its search for truth is moral desire Plato (427-347 BCE) • Aristotle: the soul is the form of a body: the life of plants, the sensation/motion of animals, the mind of human beings (384-322 BCE)

  2. The Hindu Self • The experienced part of person (the conscious self and body) differs from the all-pervading divine Self, which is not known or reasoned to • Sankara: The phenomenal world (including selves) does not exist (788-820) • Ramanuja: The phenomenal self is a modification of the inner self (God/Brahman) (1077-1157)

  3. Mind-Body Dualism (1596-1650) (1637-78) • René Descartes: human beings are composed of a material body and an immaterial mind that are distinct but linked through the pineal gland • Problem: Interaction. Proposed solutions: • Anne Conway: bodies are not really different from souls; both express different degrees of how reality is organized and expressed

  4. Other Proposed Solutions to Mind-Body Dualism (1646-1716) (1632-77) • Baruch Spinoza: mind and body are simply different ways in which God is expressed (dual aspect monism) • G. W. Leibniz: mental and physical events happen independently of one another but are harmonized by God (parallelism)

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