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Articles

Is the Mind Physical?: Dissecting Conscious Brain Tissue

by Peter Lloyd

The mind-body problem has remained essentially unchanged since Descartes put it forward in 1641. The problem is: what is the nature of the conscious mind, and how does it relate to the body?

Today, the prevailing view is that the mind is really a physical phenomenon going on inside the brain. I shall call this view physicalism. It contrasts with two other broad views: dualism – which says the mind is irreducibly different from the brain; and mentalism – which denies the existence of the brain altogether.

I shall describe a hypothetical experiment that could (in principle) be carried out on a conscious brain.

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