From: The Mind-Body Problem: How Thoughts Meet Matter
perspectivephilosophical

The mind and the body are fundamentally different. A brain scan can show which neurons fire when you see the color red, but it cannot see the actual redness you experience. Thoughts have no weight, shape, or physical size, yet they are the most real things we experience. Reducing the mind to just brain cells ignores the very essence of what it means to be alive and conscious.

controversy

Supporting arguments

  • Physical descriptions leave out subjective feelings
  • Thoughts have no physical properties like weight or volume
  • We have direct, private access to our own minds
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What else is in this exploration
3 evidence blocks2 visualizations2 insights2 media resources4 rabbit holes
evidence
Many modern researchers use physicalism, the idea that everything is ultimately physical and the ...
evidence
The philosopher René Descartes made the mind-body problem a central puzzle in the 1600s by arguin...
evidence
Consciousness has a unique subjective feeling, which philosophers call 'what it is like' to exper...
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The Mind-Body Problem: How Thoughts Meet Matter
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