The mind-body problem is one that entails many different theories. The dilemma revolves around the difficulty of explaining how the mental activities of human beings relate to their living physical activities. There are some who go about solving this by stating that the mind and body do not operate independently of each other. These types of theorists may feel that only physical things truly exist. This view is commonly held by materialist, who claim that every apparent instance of a mental phenomenon is a feature of some physical object. There are others who feel differently. Dualists fall into the latter category. They believe the mind is a nonphysical thing, something that exists independently from the body. This view is a traditional solution to the mind-body problem. This belief is commonly referred to as substance dualism.
Substance dualism states that the real essence of you has nothing to do with your physical body, but rather from the distinct nonphysical entity of the mind. The mind is in constant interaction with the body. The body's sense organs create experiences in the mind. The desires and decisions of the mind cause the body to act in certain ways. However, this interaction is philosophically problematic because if the mind and body are distinct things they cannot interact causally. Another problem that arises from the interaction concerns the laws of science. The relation that occurs between the mind and the body transfers energy, which violates the conservation of energy law. This interaction also undermines our basic beliefs about how science works. It changes our perceptions on causal relationships. Science would have us believe that physics explains everything. This therefore, becomes scientifically problematic. Substance dualism looks bad if you think that science has a role in the mind-body problem. This is one of the objections raised to substance realism. However, interaction is not the only means by which dualist try to strengthen their argument.
