The mind-brain relationship and the perspective of meaning

The mind-body problem is approached as two interconnected issues: how subjective conscious experience arises from physical brain processes and how conscious mental states can causally influence the physical world. A non-physicalist framework is developed that combines a materialist view of the mind as a brain product with a metaphysical view of consciousness rooted in an underlying hidden reality. This framework resolves the problem of mental causation while remaining consistent with fundamental physical principles. Meaning acts as a bridge between neurological processes and the conscious mind. Awareness of the self and representation of the external world are connected to this perspective.

Study at a glance

Abstract

We view the mind-body problem in terms of the two interconnected problems of phenomenal consciousness and mental causation, namely, how subjective conscious experience can arise from physical neurological processes and how conscious mental states can causally act upon the physical world. In order to address these problems, I develop here a non-physicalist framework that combines two apparently antithetical views: the materialist view of the mind as a product of the brain and the metaphysical view of consciousness rooted in an underlying hidden reality. I discuss how this framework resolves the problem of mental causation while being simultaneously consistent with fundamental physical principles. I will elucidate how the framework ties in to the perspective of meaning that acts as the bridge between physical neurological processes and the conscious mind. Moreover, we will see how both our awareness of the self and our representation of the external world are connected to this perspective.