substance dualism

Substance dualism is a philosophical view that mind and matter are fundamentally distinct kinds of substances. This means that the mind is not simply the brain, but a separate entity. This idea was famously articulated by René Descartes in the 17th century. He proposed that the mind is an immaterial, thinking substance, while the body is a physical, extended substance that operates according to the laws of physics.1

Descartes believed the mind and body interact causally, a concept known as interactionism. This raises the question of how a non-physical mind can influence a physical body, and vice versa. Other forms of substance dualism, like occasionalism and parallelism, attempt to address this by suggesting divine intervention or pre-established harmony rather than direct causal interaction.1

While substance dualism posits two distinct substances, property dualism suggests that mental properties are distinct from physical properties, even if they arise from a physical substance like the brain.2