In Intellect:Mind over Matter, Mortimer Adler probes the relationship between the mind and the body. He describes the four main theories regarding this relationship and separates them into two categories: extreme and moderate. Among the four theories, Adler argues in favor of moderate immaterialism. His argument is easily the most convincing as it accounts for the essential difference between man and animal, our intellect, while acknowledging the congruity between the mind and body.
The extreme positions described by Adler are monism and dualism. The monistic theory stems from the idea that matter and matter alone exists- “that the world consists of nothing but bodies and their motions.” Therefore, there is no-non-material mind; rather the mind is strictly a synonym for the brain. Alder further explains that in monism, “There is nothing to talk or think about except the brain, its activities, its states, and its processes.” In contrast, dualist theorists, such as Plato and Descartes, hold that man is composed of two utterly distinct substances. In dualism, the mind and the body are not only different but they exist separately of each other. They are “as different and distinct as the …show more content…
There are many things that differentiate man from animals: man can create laws and associations, man rationalize the danger in a situation, man reason the intentions of someone. None of these, or any others similar to them, would be possible without conceptual thought. By reducing the mind to the brain and its activities, the two materialistic theories (monism and moderate materialism) cannot include the intellect. No one has discovered an organ of conceptual thought. Moreover, if our cognitive function is reduced to merely a brain, then it seems impossible to account for any difference between a human’s brain and an animal’s
The extreme positions described by Adler are monism and dualism. The monistic theory stems from the idea that matter and matter alone exists- “that the world consists of nothing but bodies and their motions.” Therefore, there is no-non-material mind; rather the mind is strictly a synonym for the brain. Alder further explains that in monism, “There is nothing to talk or think about except the brain, its activities, its states, and its processes.” In contrast, dualist theorists, such as Plato and Descartes, hold that man is composed of two utterly distinct substances. In dualism, the mind and the body are not only different but they exist separately of each other. They are “as different and distinct as the …show more content…
There are many things that differentiate man from animals: man can create laws and associations, man rationalize the danger in a situation, man reason the intentions of someone. None of these, or any others similar to them, would be possible without conceptual thought. By reducing the mind to the brain and its activities, the two materialistic theories (monism and moderate materialism) cannot include the intellect. No one has discovered an organ of conceptual thought. Moreover, if our cognitive function is reduced to merely a brain, then it seems impossible to account for any difference between a human’s brain and an animal’s