Page "Consciousness" Paragraph 13

Although it is widely accepted that Descartes explained the problem cogently, few later philosophers have been happy with his solution, and his ideas about the pineal gland have especially been ridiculed.

Alternative solutions, however, have been very diverse.

They can be divided broadly into two categories: dualist solutions that maintain Descartes ' rigid distinction between the realm of consciousness and the realm of matter but give different answers for how the two realms relate to each other ; and monist solutions that maintain that there is really only one realm of being, of which consciousness and matter are both aspects.

Each of these categories itself contains numerous variants.

The two main types of dualism are substance dualism ( which holds that the mind is formed of a distinct type of substance not governed by the laws of physics ) and property dualism ( which holds that the laws of physics are universally valid but cannot be used to explain the mind ).

The three main types of monism are physicalism ( which holds that the mind consists of matter organized in a particular way ), idealism ( which holds that only thought truly exists and matter is merely an illusion ), and neutral monism ( which holds that both mind and matter are aspects of a distinct essence that is itself identical to neither of them ).

There are also, however, a large number of idiosyncratic theories that cannot cleanly be assigned to any of these camps.