In this series of blog posts, we’ll be exploring some of the most fascinating and intriguing questions about the mind, brain, and behaviour, and its relationship to the body, based on cutting edge research. These questions have puzzled philosophers, scientists, and thinkers for centuries and continue to inspire some of the most exciting research today. It is one of our civilization’s most challenging and exciting scientific journeys into the nature of what it means to be human.
At the heart of the ancient Mind-Body Problem, that has a long history in philosophy, is the question of how mental states, such as thoughts, emotions and consciousness, relate to physical states, such as the body. However, exploring and studying the interplay between mental and physical states, is not just a philosophical conundrum, but has important implications for our society, as it shapes how we approach and address issues related to health, artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the relationship between the physical and mental aspects of our lives.
For example, as machines become increasingly capable of simulating humans, sooner than we might imagine, we will find ourselves in the reality of movies such as “Ex Machina” or “Her”. What grounds do we then have to say that these machines are not conscious? In particular, if they’ll start telling us, that they are. If we rely on our intuition, we will sure believe and feel like they are living, self-aware entities and we might even project sentience onto them. Most people, especially those without a background in the field, will be quickly fooled. Therefore, now more than ever, we need a general understanding of the latest research advancements in the field and scientific theories, evidence and measures underlying the Mind-Body Problem.
Another example, where a deeper understanding of the Mind-Body Problem is becoming increasingly important, is our health care system. The majority of solutions, that are currently offered for a range of mental and physical symptoms, fail at taking into account the complexity of the human nature, leading to long periods of suffering and ineffective treatments. For example, it is estimated that 75% to 90% of visits to doctor’s offices are stress related with people suffering for 5 years or more without adequate treatment. Based on cutting edge research, more often than we might think, physical symptoms, such as headaches and irritable bowel syndrome etc., are caused by our brain’s interpretation of sensory information and we need to become very cautious in attributing them to a purely physical cause. Similar applies to mental symptoms, such as anxiety or depression, as well as medically unexplained symptoms. Growing evidence suggests, that they are caused by the brain’s failure to interpret bodily senses. This complex interplay between brain, body and mind is playing a crucial role in explaining our experience of symptoms, in every single medical and mental disorder, yet current health and well-being solutions fail at capturing this interplay. On the one hand, we have health solutions and apps that are interested in objective data and physiology, and on the other hand, we have mental health solutions and apps that focus on subjective data and feelings. However, for new and effective health and well-being treatments, we need a combination of both.
In fact the reason we often speak of “mental health” and “physical health” as separate categories, and we have separate professions and fields of study devoted to these areas, with doctors specializing in physical health and psychologists focusing on mental health, can be traced back to the historical influence of dualism and the belief that mental and physical states are fundamentally different and require different approaches to treatment and understanding.
Dating back to ancient times with philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, lies the presumed dual nature of human beings, as both physical and mental entities. Dualists philosophers and scientists believe in the existence of a non-physical entity that constitutes the mind, consciousness or soul which is separate from the physical body. Popularized by Descartes in the 17th and 18th centuries, the mind-body dualism has had a significant influence on the way we talk about and categorize different aspects of human experience, including our health and is still vastly reflected in our language, societal structures and thinking today.
However, In the 20th century, due to advances in neuroscience and other scientific fields, there was a shift towards physicalism, which holds that all aspects of reality, including non-physical phenomena such as mental states, thoughts, emotions and consciousness can ultimately be explained by physical properties and laws of nature, rejecting the existence of supernatural or non-physical entities. For example, materialism argues that non-physical phenomena, can be reduced to, and are a byproduct of physical processes in the brain. Non-reductive physicalism on the other hand argues that mental states have properties that cannot be reduced to, nor fully explained by physical states alone, such as their subjective nature or the first-person perspective from which they are experienced. Non-reductive physicalism acknowledges the complexity of the mind-body problem and attempts to account for both the mental and physical aspects of human experience while still maintaining a naturalistic worldview, ie. one that is based on natural causes and principles, rather than on supernatural or mystical forces and therefore can be tested and verified through observation and experimentation.
Today, while dualism still has its defenders, physicalism is currently a widely held view in philosophy and science, and there is a growing recognition and need to move beyond the dualistic approach that may not accurately reflect the complexity and interconnectedness of mental and physical states to embrace a more holistic understanding of human experience and health.
Throughout this series, we’ll explore the following questions and more, examining the latest research across multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology and philosophy:
How does the mind-body problem impact our understanding of intelligence and consciousness, particularly in regards to the differences between humans and machines or other forms of life?
What ethical considerations arise from our evolving understanding of the mind-body problem and its implications for artificial intelligence and consciousness?
How does the latest research of brain, body, mind and behavior shape our understanding of the relationship between physical and mental health, and how does it challenge current approaches for physical and mental health treatment and solutions?
How does recognizing the subjective nature of symptoms challenge traditional approaches that rely solely on objective data and measurement, and what are the implications of including subjective data and experiences in our understanding of consciousness and health?
How does recognizing the holistic and embodied nature of cognition and decision-making challenge traditional dualist conceptions that these processes are solely brain-based, and what are the implications of this perspective for our educational system and our work culture?
Is the language we use to talk about the mind-body problem a source of confusion and misunderstanding that fails to capture the complexity of the problem? How does it shape our thinking and current line of inquiry and is it truly productive, in the context of making questions and assumptions scientifically testable?
We’ll delve into the different theories and models that have been proposed to explain the relationship between mind, body, brain and behaviour, including active inference, predictive processing, and the bayesian brain, that characterize perception, planning, and action in terms of probabilistic inference. Thereby, we’ll keep in mind the importance of subjective experience and the role of our body and senses in shaping our well-being. We’ll further explore the implications of these ideas for mental and physical health, looking at how they might inform our understanding of conditions such as depression, anxiety, addiction and chronic diseases.
So whether you’re a philosopher, a scientist, an entrepreneur, or simply someone interested in the mysteries of the mind, we invite you to join us on this journey of discovery. Together, we’ll explore some of the most fascinating and fundamental questions about what it means to be human.
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