Puralistic solution to mind - body problem : Berkeley and pragmatism

Abstract

In this paper, I will roughly sketch out one solution to the mind - body problem. From Descartes and Locke's period, it is one major problem for philosophers to locate our mind in scientific world. Philosophers who try to tackle to this difficult problem seem to be increasing by popularity of naturalistic philosophy in 20th century. Among these philosophers, the most remarkable ones are physicalists. But I will take up two different thoughts. One is Berkeley's, an Irish idealist and the other is Pragmatist's. Using these philosophers' arguments, I want to propose the pluralistic solution. I will propose that we should not locate our mind into physical world by force and we should not offer the only one answer to the question of what our mind is. Rather we should define mind variously in various practices or contexts, even if such various conceptions may be inconsistent with each other.