Definition
Property dualism is the doctrine that mental properties are distinct from and irreducible to physical properties, even if properties of both kinds may be possessed by the same thing, such as the human brain. Substance dualism is the doctrine that the things that possess mental properties are distinct from and irreducible to the things that possess physical properties – for example, that the human mind or soul is distinct from and irreducible to the human body or any part of it, such as the brain.
Description of the Theory
The most famous proponent of substance dualism was the French philosopher and scientist René Descartes (1591–1650), who maintained that there is a “real distinction” between the human mind or soul and the human body [1]. According to Descartes, the mind and the body are distinct and separable substances. (By a “substance” in this context, Descartes means an individual thing or object which possesses properties.) Descartes held that the mind and the body...
References
Descartes R (1984) Meditations on first philosophy. In: Cottingham J, Stoothoff R, Murdoch D (eds) The philosophical writings of Descartes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Spinoza B (1994) Ethics, Curley E (ed) Princeton University Press, Harvard
Chalmers DJ (1996) The conscious mind. Oxford University Press, New York
Robinson WS (2004) Understanding phenomenal consciousness. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Levine J (2001) Purple haze: the puzzle of consciousness. Oxford University Press, New York
Kim J (1998) Mind in a physical world. MIT Press, Cambridge MA
Popper KR, Eccles JC (1977) The self and its brain. Springer International, Berlin
Swinburne R (1986) The evolution of the soul. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Papineau D (2002) Thinking about consciousness. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Kripke S (1980) Naming and necessity. Blackwell, Oxford
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lowe, E.J. (2008). Dualism (Property Dualism, Substance dualism). In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_1629
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_1629
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-23735-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-29678-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences