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The mind-body problem
How mind and matter relate
The mind-body problem asks how the physical body, brain included, relates to the mind, and whether they are one thing, two things or something else. It gives this programme its name and its starting question.
In the seventeenth century René Descartes proposed that mind and matter are different substances, and ever since, the difficulty has been to say how two such things could interact. Modern physicalism answers that mind is a physical process, while leaving open why such processes should feel like anything at all. Idealism takes mind to be fundamental. Neutral monism proposes a single underlying stuff that is neither mental nor physical. Emergence theories look for new levels of organisation that carry causal powers of their own.
A further complication is that our idea of the physical keeps changing. Noam Chomsky has argued, for instance, that physics itself abandoned the old mechanical picture of body once Newton's gravity defied it, which makes the question of what counts as physical less settled than it seems.
For a doctor the problem is not abstract. Mind and body interact in pain, stress, sleep and recovery every day, and the way a clinician thinks about that relationship shapes the care. The conversations listed here come from physics, biology, neuroscience and philosophy, and the guests rarely agree.
Episodes are listed newest first. This is general discussion, not medical advice.
Episodes on this topic.
Anna Ciaunica
Is Your Whole Body Conscious? Biological Idealism: From Cells to Selves
Length 2 hr 5 min
Donald Hoffman & Karl Friston
What is Ultimately Real? Consciousness, Free Energy & Spacetime
Length 2 hr 40 min
Edward Kelly
What if the Brain Doesn’t Create Consciousness? Irreducible Mind & Beyond Physicalism
Length 1 hr 50 min
Elly Vintiadis
Consciousness Beyond Materialism: A New Framework for Mind & Reality
Length 1 hr 17 min
Dr Tevin Naidu
What is the Mind-Body Problem?
Length 4 min
Dr Tevin Naidu
Introducing the Mind-at-Large Project: A New Paradigm in Consciousness Research
Length 1 hr 51 min
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
What is Exogenous Mind Theory? Metaphysics, Psychedelics, & Mind At Large
Length 1 hr 42 min
Chris Fields
What is a Theory of Consciousness for? Quantum Mechanics, Minds & Minimal Physicalism
Length 1 hr 13 min
Terrence Deacon
Did Mind Emerge From Matter? Origin of Life, Causal Emergence, & Descartes' Shadow
Length 3 hr 9 min
David Papineau
Is the Mind Just the Brain? Materialism & the Problem with Phenomenal Consciousness
Length 1 hr 20 min
Keith Frankish
What is Descartes' Prison? Illusionism as Intuition Pumps for Consciousness Theories
Length 2 hr 49 min
Tony Nader
Is Consciousness All There Is? The Field of All Possibilities & The Ultimate Singularity
Length 1 hr 17 min
Dr Tevin Naidu
What is Consciousness? Theories of Consciousness & The Mind-Body Solution
Length 1 hr 7 min
Curt Jaimungal
What Is A Theory Of Everything? Theories Of Everything /\ Mind-Body Solution
Length 2 hr 35 min
Ogi Ogas
Can this Unified Theory of Consciousness Explain all States of Mind? The Hard Problem
Length 1 hr 51 min
Stephen Grossberg
A Unified Theory of Consciousness? Adaptive Resonance Theory & The Hard Problem
Length 1 hr 54 min
Anand Vaidya
What Is Pure Consciousness? Non-Dualism & Indian Philosophy Of Mind
Length 2 hr 2 min
Dr Tevin Naidu
What is Mind-Body Solution? A Quest to Conquer the Mind-Body Problem
Length 1 hr 54 min
Bernardo Kastrup
Are We Dissociated Alters Of A Universal Mind? Understanding Analytic Idealism
Length 2 hr 28 min
Tony Nader
Is Everything Consciousness? One Unbounded Ocean Of Consciousness
Length 1 hr 44 min
Rebecca Goldstein
What's The Matter with Matter & Why Does It Matter? The Mind-Body Problem
Length 1 hr 8 min
Bernardo Kastrup
Is Consciousness The Fundamental Reality? Analytic Idealism & The Cosmic Mind
Length 1 hr 52 min
Philip Goff
Is Everything Conscious? Panpsychism & The Purpose Of The Universe
Length 1 hr 40 min
Helen Yetter-Chappell
Is Consciousness Everything? Quasi-Berkeleyan Idealism Without God
Length 1 hr 28 min
Noam Chomsky
What Is The Mind-Body Problem? The Hard Problem Of Consciousness & Materialism
Length 37 min
Patricia Churchland
Why Do We Have A Conscience? Moral Intuition & Eliminative Materialism
Length 1 hr 27 min
Keith Frankish
Is Consciousness an Illusion? Illusionism & its Ethical Implications
Length 3 hr