Substance dualism

Substance dualism is the philosophical belief that people have bodies and souls (or minds) and that the two are made of different materials, or substances. People who support the idea of substance dualism believe that the mind and body are independent of each other. The soul can exist without the body, living on after the body has died. Substance dualism is a position that many philosophers and religions have embraced over the years.

Overview

Substance dualism is one answer to the philosophical mind-body problem. The mind-body problem is a question about how the mind and body are related to each other. Many answers to this problem exist. Some people, called physicalists, believe that the mind and body are one. Dualists believe that the mind, or soul as some dualists call it, is different from the body and even the brain. Two major types of dualism exist: property dualism and substance dualism. Property dualists believe that the mind and the brain are made of the same material. They believe that all parts of the mind and body are made from the atoms and matter that science can identify. However, people who are property dualists also believe that the mind and body are different in that they have different properties. They believe that the mental properties, such as the feeling of pain, are more than just the physical properties of neurons firing. They believe they are a special type of property that, while not physical, is still important and separate from the physical. Nevertheless, they believe that these mental properties can exist only because of the physical properties.

Substance dualists are different. They believe that mental properties are clearly different from physical properties, but they also believe that the physical substances that make up the body and the mind are different. Substance dualists believe that the body is made up of atoms and matter that science can detect. They also generally believe that the mind, or soul, is made of a different substance. Some substance dualists believe that the mind or soul is made from a substance or substances that cannot be identified by science. Substance dualists believe that the mind or soul is capable of existing without the body. Whereas a property dualist would believe that the mind or soul is dependent on the body to function, a substance dualist would believe that the mind or soul can and most likely will live on without the body. Many religious people have ideas that align with substance dualism, as they believe that humans have souls that survive after the body is dead.

Substance dualism is one of the answers to the mind-body problem. Famous philosophers such as Plato and Descartes supported the idea of substance dualism. Yet, some questions about substance dualism still exist. For example, some philosophers question how, if the mind and the body are made of two different substances, the substance of the mind has never been identified by science. This substance does not seem to have any mass or interact with other matter either. All these factors lead many philosophers to question the likelihood that substance dualism is a cogent philosophical theory.

Bibliography

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