Soul-Body, Method, Science, and Truth in Philosophy
Soul-Body Relationship
Descartes struggled to explain the soul-body relationship, given the substantial *res cogitans* and *res extensa*. Today, the issue has evolved into the mind-brain approach, with a range of responses summarized in three positions:
- Dualism: Mental and body are separate, interacting entities. Consciousness is not reducible to cerebral processes.
- Monism: Mental processes are results or properties of the brain. A single entity, the brain, produces events explained by its structures.
- Emergentism: An intermediate position. The mental emerges from and depends on physical processes, but has qualitatively different properties.
The Scientific Method
In our century, the debate over the method has been as intense as in Descartes’ time, but with different conclusions. The desire for a universally valid method and the idea that scientific knowledge is the only valuable knowledge have been abandoned. Discussions of scientific methodology often start with positivism. For this current, science provides the only valid knowledge; claims of religion or metaphysics are meaningless. The verification principle, generally and nuanced later, states that a proposition is only meaningful if empirically verifiable. Science’s task is to make these verifications and accept theories fitting the criteria.
Karl Popper opposed the neo-positivists. He proposed *conjectures and refutations* as a scientific approach, replacing verification with falsifiability.
Later, criticisms of logical positivism and Popper’s theories multiplied.
Science and Metaphysics
Descartes believed metaphysics was the foundation of science and the most important knowledge. Currently, scientists have a dual consideration of metaphysical questions: Firstly, every theory should specify the model of reality (metaphysical framework) where its claims make sense. Secondly, metaphysics as scientific knowledge of the substance of what “is” is deemed worthless, aligning more with Kant’s view: we *think*, but do not *know*, concepts like God, soul, and world.
Current philosophy of science considers experience and the limits of scientific knowledge.
Certainty and Truth
Today, absolute knowledge of truth and certainty is expressed in terms of probability, which cannot be absolute. The debate on verification criteria has shown that scientific laws are only probable. Science is not the only access to truth; it can be disclosed in language and poetry, as Heidegger argued.
Other theories of truth include:
- Truth as utility: A statement is true if it yields good results (Peirce).
- Truth and perspective: Reality can be seen from different, true perspectives. Truth is not absolute, independent of the subject.
Rationalist dogmatism and radical empiricism’s skepticism have been replaced by a critical relativism, considering the interaction between knowledge, culture, and the influence of social, economic, and psychological factors in determining truth.