Philosophy of mind

Philosophy of mind investigates the nature of mental states, such as perception, thought and feeling, and above all of consciousness, and their relation to the body and the physical world. Its central question, the mind–body problem, received its modern form from Descartes, who held mind and matter to be two different substances.

The main answers are dualism, in which mind and matter are distinct; physicalism, in which the mind is a physical process or is produced by one; idealism, in which matter depends on mind; and dual-aspect or neutral monism, in which both are aspects of one reality, a view associated with Spinoza and, in different forms, with William James and Bertrand Russell. Panpsychism, the view that some form of experience is fundamental to all matter, has received renewed attention.

Indian and Buddhist philosophy have their own traditions of the philosophy of mind, from Sāṃkhya’s dualism of consciousness and matter to Yogācāra’s analysis of consciousness, and these are increasingly brought into the conversation.