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Dualism is a philosophical concept that concludes that the mind is separate from the body, and therefore mental phenomena are not physical in nature and vice versa. Dualism can trace its roots back to ancient Greece and philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, who grappled with the relationship between the mind and the body, as well as early Hindu philosophy.

While various schools of thought emerged over the centuries, the clearest articulation of a dualistic view was proposed in the 17^th century by philosopher Rene Descartes, who said that the mind and body are separate, with the mind being the non-physical seat of consciousness and the brain being the “physical seat of intelligence.”

In this article, we’ll look at kinds of dualism, arguments for and against the concept This will be followed by an overview of dualism in different fields and contemporary perspectives on dualism.

Types of Dualism

There are several kinds of dualism. Here are some of the most popular.

Substance Dualism

Substance dualism, also known as cartesian dualism, argues that the mind and the body are fundamentally different. According to Dr. Brian Tierney, the Somatic Doctor, a licensed psychologist, “This type of dualism considers that the mind and the body are composed of… different substances”—an immaterial mind that has mental properties and a material body that has physical properties.

Rene Descartes was a key proponent of this view. He believed that the mind and the body could exist without one another, but the body without the mind could not think. This kind of dualism is compatible with many theologies that claim that people’s immortal souls are in a different plane of existence from that of the physical plane.

Substance dualism has four main theories championed by different philosophers:

• Interactionism, which says that material causes produce mental effects. The opposite is also true. Descartes believed, incorrectly, that the pineal gland was the reason for the interaction between the mind and body.
• Occasionalism, which says that the basis of the interaction between the material and immaterial cannot be material. Instead, each instance of these individual interactions is caused by God. The 17^th century French philosopher Nicholas Malebranche was a proponent of this kind of dualism.
• Parallelism, which was championed by the Age of Reason German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, states that while mental causes only have mental effects and physical causes only have physical effects, God makes it seem as if mental and physical events are caused by one another.
• Epiphenomenalism, which asserts that physical causes can cause either physical events or mental events but mental causes can’t cause anything because they’re just the product of physical causes which occur in the brain. Thomas Henry Huxley came up with epiphenomenalism in the 19^th century, which he based on Thomas Hobbes’ materialism theories.

Property Dualism

Property dualism, in contrast to substance dualism, “suggests that there are mental and physical properties of the same substance, such as the activity of nerves in the brain,” says Tierney. That is, while the mind has non-physical properties, they emerge from the brain, a physical substance.

“For example,” Tierney explains, “the sensation of pain has physical properties involving actual brain activity, as well as mental properties that have to do with the subjective experience of, say, stubbing your toe.”

Epistemological Dualism

Epistemological dualism deals with the nature of knowledge, according to Tierney. This has to do with if the world we see and experience is actually the real world or, in fact, merely a copy generated by the brain’s neural processes. Tierney says that philosopher Immanuel Kant has some sense of this in his work.

This has also been used to distinguish knowledge from beliefs as well as reason from faith and facts from values. Knowledge, reason, and facts are objective, while belief, faith and values are subjective.

Arguments for Dualism

There are several arguments for dualism, including:

The Mind-Body Problem

The mind-body problem asks what is the relationship between the mind and the body? This has been resolved in different ways by different kinds of thinkers. For example, according to Daniel Boscaljon, PhD, director of research and co-founder of the Institute for Trauma Informed Relationships, for one branch of philosophers  “the mind’s theoretically unlimited potential is contrasted favorably with the body’s susceptibility to time and space.”

Tierney explains, “the way the mind-body problem is articulated supports dualism because it suggests that mental and physical properties are fundamentally different.” That is, the mind and body stand in contrast as two separate systems.

The Problem of Consciousness

The problem of consciousness, known as the “hard problem” of physics, observes that conscious states and physical states are not the same thing.

As Boscaljon says, “This often gets to the chicken and egg problem.” Some believe consciousness came first while others believe matter or the physical came first. Either way, this serves as an argument for dualism as it sets consciousness or the mind against the body as two different things.

The Argument From Personal Identity

This argument, which dates from the late 1700s, claims that a person’s identity is not the same as their physical body. “In the identity debates,” observes Tierney, “it is hard to find thinkers who argue that every aspect of the identity is physical.” This supports dualism and tends to lead to another kind of dualism: nature versus nurture.

Criticisms of Dualism

Criticisms of dualism include the following.

The Interaction Problem

Proponents of this criticism tell us that, as Boscaljon says, “it wouldn’t make sense for there to be two qualitatively different substances”—i.e. the mental and the physical. Instead, Tierney explains, “physical pain, for example, can interact with the mind and the mind can create physical pain in the body over time… If the mind and the body interact like this,” they can’t be separate the way dualists claim.

The Problem of Causal Closure

Causal closure states that every physical event is determined by a physical cause. This idea comes from materialist physics and states that while a physical object can be put upon by outside forces, there is no need for a non-physical explanation.

As a result, scientists who believe in this argue against dualism. According to Tierney, “this approach can be found in various regions of psychiatry, where behavior is about neurons and observable molecules, not the mind.”

The Argument from Neuroscience

This criticism stems from neuroscience’s discovery of “tight correlations between the functioning of the mind and the functioning of the physical brain.” Tierney takes this one step further, saying, “Beyond correlations are the neuroscientific findings that regions of the brain such as the thalamus can be directly stimulated to create changes in consciousness.

Additionally, chemical messengers like serotonin can have a dramatic effect on consciousness, as experienced when taking serotonin modulators such as magic mushrooms or LSD.” Neuroscience is, thus, a strong voice against dualism.

Dualism in Different Fields

Dualism shows up in a variety of fields. Here are three:

• Dualism in Philosophy of Mind: Philosophy of mind is a very large field that often champions dualism. “Most people interested in philosophy of the mind likely reject the importance of material reality,” says Boscaljon, “especially those trained in Anglo-American philosophy or newer schools of consciousness studies that ascribe to…the belief that everything reduces to the mind.” Much of what we’ve reviewed in this article comes from philosophy of the mind.
• Dualism in Religion and Spirituality: Many current schools of religion or spirituality embrace dualism, especially the separation of the soul or spirit (instead of the mind) and the body. As Boscaljon observes, while the soul is infinite to these schools, the body is finite, fallen, and weak. This is the core of many religious beliefs about the immortal soul and the afterlife.
• Dualism in Psychology and Cognitive Science: Branches of psychology and cognitive science that believe in dualism tend to study the mental processes that aren’t completely explained by physical processes alone. For instance, Tierney cites subjective experiences and consciousness as two processes that can’t be understood by only studying the brain.

Contemporary Perspectives on Dualism

The following represent some of the more modern perspectives and arguments around the idea of dualism:

• Dualism vs. Monism: While dualism separates the mind and body, monism takes the approach that everything has a single substance or cause—that, as Boscaljon says, it is all mind or all matter. Generally, Tierney observes, monists adhere to the physical being the cause of everything.
• Dualism and Materialism: Materialism, unlike dualism, proposes “that everything is material or physical, including the mind,” says Tierney. Materialism, according to Boscaljon, defines itself in terms of quantifiable elements, ignoring everything else.
• Dualism and Emergentism: Emergentism, says Boscaljon, suggests that “things can be more than the sum of their parts.” Tierney furthers this argument, saying, “In the context of mind-body, emergentism suggests that mental states are emergent properties of the brain. In the context of the universe, some emergentists argue that consciousness is an emergent property of matter.” This is largely in contrast to dualism that see mind and body as separate.

Summary

Dualism states that the mind, or nonphysical, is different in substance from the body, or physical. There are several kinds of dualism including substance, property, and epistemological dualism. While dualism can trace its roots back to ancient Greece, perhaps 17^th century philosopher Rene Descartes articulated the dualist view most clearly.

While there are arguments both for and against dualism, it’s hard not to appreciate this viewpoint. Entire philosophies have been built around binaries such as mind-body, good-bad, subject-object, and one-many.