Dualism vs.

Monism

The mind-body problem has two conceptual approaches: Monism and Dualism. One views as a
man composed of one basic substance or principle as the ground reality while the other sees the man as
a basic unity, made up of two irreducible elements. This will be an analysis to give consideration to these
differing views as well as the arguments about them.

There is a mind-body problem because both consciousness and thought, broadly construed,
seem very different from anything physical and it’s hard to picture a creature, especially a man, who
possesses both a mind and a body. The dualistic view sees a man as composed of mind and body – the
mental and the physical (in ancient anthropological terms, “soul and body” or “spirit and body”). It
implies that the mental events are correlated with physical events, or that the mind influences the body.
To correlate is to imply that there are two factors or entities involved, for one cannot correlate
something with itself. The foremost Philosopher of this theory is Rene Descartes; his famous one-liner
“cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I exist) opens the discussion on duality of human nature.

The human person is made of two realities -matter and spirit. They are two independent entities
but they closely interact with each other. And it is possible for the spirit and the body to either
temporarily or permanently separate at a particular period of time. The temporary condition may be
when the person becomes unconscious or in a clinical state of comatose; or permanent when the
person dies. This view was advocated by St. Thomas Aquinas, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. (blah blah
blah)…. encounter a pure soul.

The body is external (blah blah blah)… like animals and plants.

According to Aristotle (blah blah blah) and spirit.

In dualism, mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical. And intelligence could not
be identified, or explained in terms of, their physical body. The mind with consciousness and self-
awareness, and to distinguish this from the brain, is the seat of intelligence. However, the most
frequently used argument in favor of dualism appeals to the common-sense intuition that conscious
experience is distinct from inanimate matter. Many modern philosophers of mind think that the
intuitions are misleading and that we should use our critical faculties, along with empirical evidence
from the sciences for examination to determine whether there is real basis to them.

In contrast to dualism, monism does not accept any fundamental divisions. The monistic model
rejects any splitting of man into parts and views him as a unified organism of great complexity and
varied functioning. There is no concept of mind and a body which interact (a weak form of dualism), but
rather emphasizes man’s absolutely basic unity. Mind and body are manifestations of a single substance.
And it postulates unity of origin of all things; all existing things return to a source that is distinct from
them.
 There are many monisms. What they share is that they attribute oneness. Where they differ is
in what they target and how they count. (yung mga philosophers sa monism na sinned mo sakin sa
messenger).

Monism has been subject to frequent change and reformulations. On the other hand, monism –
when related to religion – was suspected of being too philosophical or rationalistic to express the core
essence of some religious systems. Not all monistic religious systems obviously hold to be ones and at a
closer scrutiny do acknowledge their moinistic character depending on how the rational element is
represented in the unity to be achieved (e.g. “desire to identify itself,” “permanent union,” “realize the
underlying unity,” etc.). the reason for introducing the term “monism” was to offer a consistent
scientific worldview, not divided in scientific and religious competence fields.

Dualism and monism has a certain appeal and each has weak points, problems and
disadvantages. There are those who believe that they solved the problem and that their position is far
better than the alternatives. They have the reasons for maintaining the position that they do in the light
of criticisms. The “Problem” does not as yet have such a clear solution that there is anything like a
consensus amongst all the people of the world existing or even one forming. The mind-body problem is
an unsolved problem concerning the relationship between the thought and consciousness in the human
mind, and in the brain as part of the physical body.