Jochen Fahrenberg and Marcus Cheetham The Mind - Body Problem As Seen By Students of Different Disciplines

The mind-body problem is a continuing issue in philosophy. No surveys known to us have been conducted about the actual preferences of, for example, psychology students for particular preconceptions about the mind-body relation. These preconceptions may have different practical implications for decisions concerning the object and method of research, the choice of explanatory device for psychological and other research data and for the approach of professionals in practice. A questionnaire comprising ten different preconceptions about the mind-body relation and other items was returned by 209 German students of various disciplines (including psychology) and by a second sample of 233 first year psychology students. Identity theory, interactionism, and complementarity were preferred most. The students clearly believed that the preference for certain preconceptions has important practical implications. There were no differences between the students of different disciplines in the choice of preferred preconceptions about the mind-body relation or in the view that these preconceptions are of practical importance. The mind-body problem is one of the long-standing metaphysical issues of philosophy and concerns the relationship between that which is mental and that which is physical. Many solutions to this problem have been proposed, and to this day, old and new monistic and dualistic positions continue to be published in books and numerous articles. The contemporary debate on the mind-body problem engages the attention of philosophers, physicists, neurobiologists and science journalists. However, this debate attracts less interest in those disciplines which are particularly concerned with empirical psychophysical correlates, that is, in psychophysiology, psychosomatics, and psychiatry. In these disciplines the attitude is prevalent that the mind-body problem is a philosophical issue of no practical consequence, or an unsolvable problem. Correspondence: Prof. Dr. Jochen Fahrenberg. Psychologisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Belfortstr. 20, D-79085 Freiburg i. Br., Germany. [email protected]