Mind-body problem

The mind-body problem can be stated as, "What is the basic relationship between the mental and the physical?"
For the sake of simplicity, we can state the problem in terms of mental and physical events: "What is the basic relationship between mental events and physical events?" It could also be stated in terms of the relation between mental and physical states and/or processes, or between the brain and consciousness.

There are three basic metaphysical positions: mental and physical events are totally different, and cannot be reduced to each other (dualism); mental events are to be reduced to physical events (materialism); and physical events are to be reduced to mental events (idealism). To put it in terms of what exists "ultimately," we could say that according to dualism, both mental and physical events exist ultimately; according to materialism, only physical events exist ultimately; and according to idealism, only mental events exist ultimately. Materialism and idealism are both varieties of monism, and of monism there are two further varieties, namely dual-aspect monism and neutral monism.

The absence of an empirically identifiable meeting point between the non-physical mind and the physically extended body has proven problematic to dualism and many modern philosophers of mind maintain that the mind is not something separate from the body.[1] This approach has been influential in the sciences, particularly in the fields of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology and the various neurosciences