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Psychology : The Mind Body

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Abstract
In the history of psychology, there are several problems that have persisted throughout the years. One major issue is the mind body relationship. This topic has been examined for numerous times and several viewpoints have been taken from like philosophers from the western world, who focused on two views of the problem mostly, and later other views and subtypes emerged. The Mind-Body theme attempts to identify the relationship between the mind and body, in other words, between the mental realms like thoughts and emotions and physical realms like neurons. Although there is evidence for all the viewpoints, the problem continues and remains unresolvable.
Keywords: mind-body, relationship, mental, physical The Mind-Body Problem The …show more content…

Dualism is a set of observations about the relationship between mind and matter; and it is important to understand that mental phenomena can sometimes be non-physical. The second view, the way of reason constrained by faith, focuses on nature and not God, empiricism is stressed, and it states the body and soul are inseparable. This view states that the body and soul are inseparable (interactionism), it focuses on nature rather than God and therefore empiricism is highly important (Hergenhahn, 2014). This standpoint was examined by Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes, and Aquinas and the recent term or it is the interactionist view. Though these individuals from both sides existed before psychology was considered a science, their ideas have impacted and offered much to psychology in many ways.
Next, in the renaissance era Rene Descartes revisited the subject with an interactionist standpoint. He believed that the mind permeated the entire body and that the mind is not housed inside the body but closely related; if not for this relation feelings and experiences wouldn’t be possible (Hergenhahn, 2014). Though, after numerous efforts to explain the mind-body interaction, he concluded that it could not be logically explained. This is where the subject of mind-body stands today for the most part; although strides are made there is no unified consensus.
Daniel E. Flage discusses Descartes’ work on the issue, stating Descartes takes an epistemic view and provides no

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