Mind-Body Problem
The Mind-Body problem is generally traced to
René Descartes, who asked how the immaterial mind (or soul) could influence the material body. Would not the interaction between the two have to partake of the character of both? Descartes famously identified the tiny pineal gland as the point of contact between mind and body.
In modern times some philosophers and scientists have proposed interactionist models and have also attempted to locate specific parts of the brain, for example at the synapses between neurons, where quantum effects might be important. The neuroscientist
John Eccles and philosopher
Karl Popper considered such models in articles and books over many years.
All the attempts to use the mysterious properties of quantum mechanics to explain the mysterious problems of consciousness and psycho-physical relations between mind and body have been just that, explaining one mystery with another mystery.
Information Philosophy sees the Mind as an information processing system that operates on two levels.
At the Macro level, the mind/brain is
adequately determined to make its decisions and resulting actions in ways that are causally connected with the agent's character and values. It is everything that
determinist and
compatibilist philosophers expect it to be.
At the Micro level, the mind/brain leaves itself open to significant thermal and quantal noise in its retrieval of past experiences. This generates creative and unpredictable
alternative possibilities for thought and action. It is our best hope for a measure of
libertarianism.
Our mind/brain model emphasizes the abstract information content of the mind. Abstract information is neither matter nor energy, yet it needs matter for its concrete embodiment and energy for its communication. Information is the modern
spirit, the
ghost in the machine.
Because it is embodied in the brain, this mind can control the actions of a body that is macroscopic and thus unaffected by its own quantum level uncertainty.
Thus our mind/body model explains how a relatively immaterial "free," unpredicatable, and creative mind can control the
adequately determined material body through the determinate and
responsible actions selected by the will from an agenda of
alternative possibilities.