Gary BenwarePHI – 10303/10/2019Joshua WalkerMind Body ProblemThe mind body problem is a question that philosophers have been trying to answer forcenturies. The question is what is our reality made up of? Is it only physical material things or isit projections made from our minds, or is it a bit of both? The way philosophers came about thisquestion, specifically Socrates, was when they began to think of how the mind and brain worktogether. How do the sensory feelings that our brains receive turn into memories and feelings?We cannot create material feelings of happiness or sadness but yet how do they exist? Are theysimply all chemical mixtures created in our brain or are they something more, outside of what isphysical and material? I think that our universe is made up of both substances, material andmental, based on the convincing arguments that this paper will be looking over and someobjections that have been raised towards them. However, before diving into the richness of theargument, the other positions must be defined.Beginning with the position of the paper, it is called substance dualism because itbelieves that reality is made up of both the physical and mental. A, “dualist believes that realityis made of up of two kinds of things that cannot be fully reduced to one another,” says theauthors of the textbookFundamentals of Philosophy: Eighth Editionwhen speaking about themind body problem and the different viewpoints philosophers take (Stewart, D., Blocker, H.G.,Petrik, J., 2013). Other viewpoints are property dualism, functionalist physicalism and identitytheory physicalism. All three of these fall under the larger category that our world is made
