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Philosophy vocabulary · Philosophy of Mind

Dualism

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˈdjuːəlɪzəm/nounCore term

In philosophy, dualism means: The view that the mind and the body are fundamentally different kinds of thing, so that mental states are not simply physical states.

In Turkish: düalizm, ikicilik

How it is used

Substance dualism (Descartes) says the mind is a separate non-physical thing; property dualism says one physical thing has both physical and non-physical properties. The main challenge is explaining how the mental and the physical interact.

Example sentences

  1. Cartesian dualism treats the mind as a thinking thing that takes up no space.

  2. Property dualism has gained new supporters through the debate on qualia.

Common collocations

  • substance dualism
  • property dualism
  • Cartesian dualism
  • interactionist dualism
  • mind-body problemThe question of how the mind, with its thoughts and feelings, is related to the body and especially to the brain.
  • physicalismThe view that everything that exists is physical or depends entirely on the physical, so that the mind is ultimately part of the physical world.
  • substanceIn metaphysics, something that exists in its own right and has properties, rather than being a property of something else.
  • qualiaThe subjective qualities of conscious experience, such as how the redness of red looks or how a headache feels to the person who has it.

More terms: Philosophy of Mind

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