When your body moves, where does the message come from to move those particular muscles? Does the message originate from the brain and travel as a chemical message, or does it's source come from an outside force, a soul? This is the question that philosophers have been trying to answer for centuries. Some philosophers believe that reality consists of two things, the material and the spiritual. The material refers to the physical body that humans posess and the spiritual refers to the soul that acts on the body. This belief is called DUALISM; this is to say that the mind and the body are independent of eachother. The soul would communicate to the body, in through the eyes and ears, and it would deliver it's message to the brain; this physiological model was first formulated by René Descartes, a French philosopher and mathematician. He believes the pineal body, in the brain, to be the source that allowed the muscles to move, with the tipping of the pineal gland to one side, he hypothesized that it allowed cerebrospinal fluid to flow into the necessary appendages, by way of nerves, creating movement. This theory is not without its flaws, however, if the soul is non-physical, then how is it allowed to interact with the physical world? Others after Descartes went on to say that since the soul was a part of the body, that it could be given the same laws as applied to the body.
In addition to the dualists, there are others who believe that reality only consists of the material, the physical, therefore saying that all of our thoughts and actions are biologically based. This type of belief is called MONISM. It is the primary basis for the endless study of the brain; if we can uncover the entireity of its workings, in theory, we should be able to understand all human actions. This is not to say that we would be able to predict behavior, since there are many factors occurring simultaneously that influence behavior.
Although it would seem like a plausible answer to the question, what then are we? Slaves to our own chemical balance? If we act in a certain way, or feel an emotion, are we to say that we had no control over it? This raises the argument of Free Will vs. Determinism. True monists have to deal with the thought that they get up every day and go the kitchen before they go to the bathroom because of certain activities in the brain, not because the made a conscious decision to do so. That is why the Mind/Body question has been pondered for so many years. Can we completely buy into one idea or another, or do we just put on the monist hat when we go do research, and put on the monist hat when we come home and celebrate our religious beliefs?
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