Human beings have physical bodies that can be observed, studied, and predicted. The same cannot be said of the human mind. It’s such a complex and complex thing, and it personally affects every individual on the planet. For centuries, philosophers have been intrigued by its nature. The questions of whether or not there is a soul, what its relationship is to the body, and how the brain contributes to the mind have perplexed us for millennia. These seemingly insoluble puzzles are collectively called the mind-body problem. Many theories put forward by philosophers fail to resolve this problem. The most pragmatic solution to the mind-body problem comes not from these philosophers, but from a religious philosophy proposed by Mormonism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayOne of the first philosophers to attempt to solve the mind-body problem was René Descartes. He sought to fully understand the nature of his own mind, exactly what allowed him to reason and think. After careful consideration, he came to the conclusion that man was a dualistic being, composed of a material body and an immaterial soul. This theory, called dualism, holds that the soul does not occupy any space, is not composed of matter, and is an immortal entity. The soul is compared to a ghost residing and operating the body, a complex machine. He maintains that the soul is not "housed in the human body exactly like a ship's pilot,... but that it is necessary that it be joined and united more closely to the body, in order to have similar sensations and appetites to ours.” , and this constitutes a real man” (Descartes 278). He also states that “the soul is of a nature totally independent of the body, and that consequently it is not capable of dying with the latter” (Descartes 278). Descartes' theory implies a life after mortal death; an immaterial soul cannot be harmed or destroyed once separated from its physical envelope. This suggestion appeals to people of faith. However, this dualistic theory poses a problem. If the soul is immaterial, it cannot occupy time or space. Yet individual minds seem to exist only in the bodies to which they are connected, and the mind and body function in direct cooperation with each other. An immaterial spirit cannot occupy time or space, but our spirit exists within our body and our timelines. Descartes' theory also states that the body and soul interact, but he does not specify how; he claims that this happens in the pineal gland of the brain, but exactly how this interaction occurs there is simply a mystery to be solved. Dualism does not seem to adequately answer the questions of the mind-body problem. After realizing that Descartes' dualism failed to solve the mind-body problem, philosophers began to study another theory: phenomenology, or materialism. The basis of materialism is that human beings do not have an immaterial mind or soul, but rather experience thought as the result of physical processes. A branch of phenomenology, called epiphenomenology, takes this to the extreme. David Chalmers hypothesized that material substance is the only "mind", with human beings having no consciousness or higher-order cognition. He explains that people could function like computers, giving only pre-programmed responses to external stimuli. Essentially, he theorized that the mind does not exist; human beings are just machines programmed to give appropriate responses to environmental factors. However, there is one aspect of the human mind that epiphenomenology fails to explain: altered states of mind. A person may be lost in thought, thinking only of memories or imagined situations of things to come, and then suddenly become extremely aware of themselves and their surroundings. If epiphenomenalism were to be true, nothing of the sort could possibly happen; epiphenomenological beings have no higher-order cognition and therefore cannot experience any self-awareness. Individual experience and a distinct sense of self effectively minimize the veracity of this theory. Another branch of materialism, called behaviorism, links the meaning of the mind to human behaviors, which are testable and observable. Jerome Shaffer points out that this behaviorist theory is inadequate because “behavior and behavioral dispositions do not provide an exhaustive analysis of…mentalist terms” (Shaffer 285). It is clear that human beings do not actively display every thought that comes to mind; behavior and mind are not one and the same thing. Shaffer presents identity theory as an alternative. Rather than tying mind to behavior, it ties mind to matter. He says that “thoughts, feelings, wishes, and the rest of so-called mental phenomena are identical with the states and processes of the body” (Shaffer 285). Essentially, it claims that thoughts are not only caused by the activation of synapses inside the brain, but are themselves synaptic activations. This solves the problem of a mysterious, unobservable soul that is the root of the mind, because synaptic activity can be studied and monitored using medical technology. Identity theory has its own problems, however. Paul Churchland states, “We do not know enough about the complex workings of the brain to be able to articulate the relevant identities” (Churchland 317). ID theorists argue that the mind is made up of physical events occurring in the brain, but no one knows enough about brain function to determine exactly what these events are and what thoughts they cause. Triggering synaptic activation in a particular location in one person's brain may cause a certain memory to be recalled, but triggering activity in the same location in another person's brain will not bring up the same memory. This inconsistency is not adequately explained by identity theory. Another major problem with identity theory is the fact that thoughts and neural functions are observed as two very different things. A person experiences his own thoughts in the form of memories, wishes, desires, regrets and emotions. We don't say to ourselves: "Several synapses have just fired in my prefrontal cortex." You might instead think, “That was a nice trip to the beach.” How I would love to go back. The person experiences “a realm of thoughts, sensations, and emotions, not a realm of electrochemical impulses in a neural network” (Churchland 319). Perhaps the biggest problem with identity theory is the fact that synaptic firing and thinking do not occur simultaneously; there is a gap between when a synapse fires and when a person experiences the thought. If identity theory were to be true, a synaptic firing and a thought would be one and the same, meaning they would have to occur at exactly the same time (Cook). The theory ofidentity was an attempt to resolve the mind-body problem in a way that would negate the problems posed by dualism and behaviorism. Shaffer does not regard identity theory as anything other than a reasonable explanation of a set of observations; he admits that dualism is still entirely within the realm of possibility. Ultimately, Shaffer was not even entirely satisfied with this theory, admitting that "there are serious difficulties in attempts to defend such an identification" (Shaffer 291). Perhaps there is another approach to solving the mind-body problem. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers an explanation of the nature of the soul that appears to answer questions left unanswered by other theories. This “Mormon phenomenology” combines dualism and phenomenology by asserting that there is in fact a soul and that it is in fact composed of a material substance. Churchland came closer to this idea than most non-Mormon philosophers with his concept of substance dualism: "...the ghost [in the machine] is a spiritual substance, unlike physical matter in its internal constitution, but fully possessing spatial properties” (Churchland 307). He continues to speculate on the possibility that "...the interaction [between the brain and mind] can perhaps be understood in terms of the exchange of energy in a form that our science has not yet recognized or understood » (Churchland 308). Mormon theology teaches that humans are tripartite beings, composed of body, mind, and spirit. Intelligence and spirit are composed of matter. What philosophers call phenomena of the mind—self-awareness, thoughts, memories, feelings, wishes, and sensations—are attributed to intelligence and spirit by Mormon phenomenology. Essentially, the spirit is a larger physical entity composed of a material intelligence and a material spirit or soul. Mormon prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 131:7–8, stating: “There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is finer or purer, and can only be discerned with purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified, we will see that everything is just matter. These verses from Mormon scriptures align with Churchland's speculations regarding substance dualism. The mind is made of pure, refined matter that cannot be seen or studied with today's scientific technology. The fact that we are not yet able to see this spiritual matter does not deny the possibility of its existence; we cannot see the particle that causes the force of gravity, and yet the evidence leads us to believe in its reality. The same goes for the mind; compelling evidence is compelling enough to argue inductively for its existence. The Mormon notion of the soul includes the idea that it is eternal, much like Descartes' notion of an immortal soul. “Man also was in the beginning with God. Intelligence…has not been created nor created, nor can it be” (D&C 93:29). Our intelligences and our minds have always existed. If intelligence cannot be created, it is reasonable to assert that, like matter, it cannot be destroyed. Mormon phenomenology holds that spirits are eternal and therefore will continue to live after physical bodies die. “For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and the spirit and the element, inseparably linked, receive fulness of joy” (D&C 93:33). During this life, the mind and the body are inseparable. The mind and body are intertwined and constitute a single physical entity with..