The Conflict Between Idealism and Materialism

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the philosophical conflict between materialism and idealism in the field of physiological psychology. The analysis of each of these ideas offers the possibility to determine with greater accuracy which are obstacles to the development of physiological psychology and which help the process. The study favors materialistic monism, but without making any strong statements.

The conflict between materialism and idealism
Classifications
Mentalism
Psychophysical parallelism
Organicism
Phrenology
Psychoanalysis as a form of mentalism
Pure behaviorism as a form of mentalism
Psychophysical complementarism
Discussion on the advantages/ disadvantages of the abovementioned
approaches

From the Paper:

"Mentalism, for instance, is based on the thought that any reference to the nervous system is not necessary in explaining mental events, which can be causally explained by psychodynamic concepts. The brain and mind are seen as distinct and independent from each other, which equals with a dualistic perspective. The opposite perception is purely monistic, and states that mental events are simply neural events. This approach, named materialist monism presupposes the existence of a single dimension - the neural one. This way of viewing things is enhanced by the appearance of organicism, which claims that mental events are caused by a particular portion of the brain, specific for each class of neural events. The basic idea of materialist monism is kept and taken one step further, by particularizing each mental event in relation to its source. "

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