The Mind-Body Problem

By Matt Baker   Updated 8 Jan 2013

This chart shows the various philosophical positions with regard to the mind-body problem. It is based on the 1979 book Persons: A Comparative Account of the Six Possible Views by Floyd F. Centore (late professor at St. Jerome's College, University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada).

Monism (Material) The physical, material world is all that exists	Reductionist Materialism	The mind can be completely reduced to physical causes occuring in the brain.	B. F. Skinner
	Nonreductionist Materialism	The mind is a unique system that cannot be explained in simple molecular terms but is still the result of material causes.	Epiphenomenonalists
Dualism Mind and body are two different substances	First-order Psychosomaticism	The mind is made up of a substance beyond that of the material brain but it is incapable of existing on its own (ie. it needs to be "ensouled" in a living body).	Aristotle
	Second-order Psychosomaticism	The mind is made up of a substance beyond that of the material brain and is capable of existing on its own (ie. without a body, post-death).	Plato and most ancient Greeks; most Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Monism (Immaterial) The immaterial mind is what is really real	Vitalism	Mind and body are opposed to one another with the mind being primary and "good" and the body being secondary and "bad" (ie. something we are attached to but should not be)	Some Hindus; Buddhists; Gnostics; Neoplatonists
	Reductionist Immaterialism	The physical, material world is an illusion. Only our minds actually exist.	Some Hindus; George Berkeley

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