Dean Zimmerman - What is the Mind-Body Problem?

How is it possible that mushy masses of brain cells, passing chemicals and shooting sparks, can cause mental sensations and subjective feelings? How can brain chemistry and electricity be ‘about’ things? Can physical activities literally be mental activities? Physical and mental activities seem so radically different.

Dean W. Zimmerman is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University specializing in metaphysics and the philosophy of religion.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[emmanuelmacedo]

For those people listening to this and not understanding any of it because you are in your first philosophy class where this is mentioned. Here is the simple mind-body problem to get you started

Dualists think existence is made of two substances, one material (think your body, trees, your pens and phone) and the other immaterial (think of things you can’t touch, or observe or measure/weigh like a thought, or a soul, but some people include things like math, you can’t physically touch 2+2 = 4.) Dualist call the immaterial substance: Mind. And the material substance is called : Body

Okay so two substances. Now consider that if this is true then you are made of these two substances. For instance let’s say your thoughts and your body. The mind-body problem is this “Well wait how does an immaterial thing, interact with a material thing?” When I have a thought or if I had a soul, where/how does that animate my body?

And the problem is there isn’t a good answer.

Partly because we have never found the place where the immaterial and material interact. And partly because if they did, well wouldn’t that mean that the immaterial thing is just another material thing?

[ShahinNe]

Love ❤️ your passion💫
Thank you for sharing these stimulating talks with us all.
We are so grateful to you and your drive in taking us on this wonderful voyage. ❤️ 🙏

[dmfoneill]

Isn't "thinking" a phenominal state of it's own? Isn't it a sense of being, reflected as an intrinsically internal process?

[courrierdebois]

The illusion created by thought is trying to figure out all the problems its existence creates.

[sujok-acupuncture]

Good to see young boy making worthy research of a very difficult subject.

[brianlebreton]

Could you do some talks about how thoughts that are feelings typically feel located in the chest, ie heart and why evolution would make that the location for feelings rather than in the brain or head? Thank you.

[jimbuono]

Why is this even a question after all the research that has been done? The purpose of all life is to make more of itself. To that end, every living thing is motivated to do what is necessary to achieve that goal. And evolution favoring the fittest, ensures the weaker will fall by the wayside. So there are two components to the brain. The primitive side, that has hardwired in the motivations and the processing side that attempts to satisfy the motivational side.
So what are the motivations in support of survival of the species? Survival of the individual, survival of the mate, survival of the offspring. For the individual to survive food, clothing and shelter are required. Then finding a mate and producing offspring and keeping them alive.
Take one example, food. Your body tells you when it is hungry. When it does, the processing side brings up memories of where food is available. It could be the fridge, it could be berries in a field, it could be an animal still walking around. The processing part then has to work out how hungry am I, what is my body telling me I need to eat, and where is the most likely place to get food.
Everything every living being does is in support of survival of the species. And one other thing, boredom. The processing part of the brain needs to be processing all the time. It will come up with ideas of what to do once the basic needs are met.
So first on the priority scale is the individual. Because the individual can find another mate and produce more offspring. Then the mate and offspring. Then the tribe, then the species.

[prestonbacchus]

There is one component of both the body and mind that is always on the scene and that is "life". Neither mind nor body can objectively exist or be viewed independent of the entire living organism. Also included in the "living" package is consciousness and creativity though perhaps you are rolling that into your notion of a mind.

[NothingMaster]

There is no problem; the problem is only in our heads. 😅

[sustainabilityaxis]

A professor of philosophy (Guest) probably venturing into areas of neuroscience and psychology (Mr Robert). How right is this or no issue for debating mind-body problem. Mr Robert is competent enough to handle this. If you can kindly comment on this. Thanks

[Dion_Mustard]

I've had many Out of Body Experiences (Without taking drugs I might add) and I am pretty convinced my mind was NOT inside my body. I was able to travel to a location and see things which I could later prove accurate. So my gut feeling is the mind and consciousness are separate entities from the body. I don't know how it works and was once skeptical of this until it happened to me.

[silentbullet]

In the 13th century Yunus Emre states that in his poem as "There's an I, inside of I."
"Yunus Emre also known as Derviş Yûnus was a Turkish folk poet and Sufi who greatly influenced Turkish culture. He wrote in Old Anatolian Turkish. His name, Yûnus, is the Arabic equivalent to the English name Jonah."

[simonhibbs]

None of his later discussion got away from the fact that dualist 'thinking stuff' must still interact causally with the brain in order to make a difference in the world. The brain activity associated with consciousness occurs across broad regions of the brain and recruit many millions of neurons. Conscious activity seems to integrate information from various regions of the brain and co-ordinate their activity so this is not a small local effect. It seem that to participate in that, this other stuff would have to be part of this process in order to generate experience encompassing sensory stimuli, body awareness, linguistic cognition, and motor functions from all these different brain regions. If it's not causally contiguous with, and constantly interacting with these areas it's difficult to see how it could operate. Yet we observe no such causal interaction interfering in biology, so far anyway.

Even if it is there, if it's interacting with the physical causally, in what way is it non-physical? Non-physical is a statement about what it isn't, not what it is. If physical stuff can't transition between different conscious experiences, what is it about this other stuff that means that it can? It doesn't really seem to address the question. If we can simply define a stuff that can be conscious, why do we get to define that physical stuff can't? I don't really see a justification for that. Something is making consciousness happen, and we can see that physical stuff is there doing things, and we don't see anything else.

That doesn't prove that physicalism is correct. The question may not be provable either way. There may be ways in theory, I have some ideas on that, but I don't think it's likely to be achievable in practice. However substance dualism just seems to raise a lot more questions with actually furnishing any answers.

[jonhowe]

Yes, it is difficult to discuss these distinctions in a fruitful or persuasive manner. The insufficiency of language is only a part of the problem.

[Rosiedelaroux]

Mint tea is the answer - calming and a great cure for trapped wind. Senna tea for constipation

[caricue]

It's so strange that these guys will mention organic matter and refuse to consider that organic matter is alive, and that's why it can have a phenomenal experience. They are so committed to "life is just chemistry" that they don't even have to say it out loud. The issue isn't what the computer is made out of, the issue is that the computer is dead, and dead things don't have experiences.

[scottconlon]

Mentally speaking I create problems then create solution

[mykrahmaan]

Just because brain is located near the eyes, where we really perceive events most purpose relevantly, there is no need whatsoever to assume it to be the seat of cosciousness and memory.

They both could very well be an interactive PROCESS with the environment, while brain itself is the location where samples of the displaced substances to be detraced from inside the earth are stored as task for the individual being to get rid of.

Memories themselves could very well be located inside the earth accessible as CONSCIOUSNESS when proper detracement portion from the stored junk, we call the brain, reaches the relevant location where it should be inside the earth ~ corresponding to the PLEASURE sensation (an interactive event with the interior of the earth through plants to which beings exhale air, and the soil to which they release other excreta). All 100% tangible material events.

There is absolutely no reason to doubt the physical possibility of such instant interaction with interior of the earth as the maximum possible distance to cover (the center of the earth from any location on its surface) is much less than half the distance of a phone call from Singapore to Florida.

This understanding would pave the way to derive the mathematical model of the mechanism how the sources of all evil can be traced and rearranged, while they are still inside the earth, in order to PREVENT them from reaching the surface of the earth to harm beings.

Intentional and phenomenal events Dean separates correspond to events on plants due to sources of particles inside the earth and outside of it, accordingly.
The former require differentiation to detrace negative, while the latter integration to perpetuate positive (the words "positive" and "negative", thereby, meant in the layperson's sense and NOT in the various self contradicting meanings science and mathematics assign to them).

[waitingforparts]

I guess it's an overview of the question.
I missed if there was an answer out forth.
Usually these videos are beyond my ability to process the discussion into something I will say such as wow . Today I said huh.

[jamesruscheinski]

maybe substance dualism from infinite time (consciousness) and infinitesimal time (physical matter)? how might physical brain interact with infinite time?