The Mind-Body Conflict

The theory of a mind-body conflict, which has corrupted every branch and issue of philosophy, does have its root in a real conflict, but of a special kind. Its root is a breach between some men’s consciousness and existence. In this sense, the basis of the theory is not reality, but a human error: the error of turning away from reality, of refusing to accept the absolutism of the metaphysically given.

The man who follows and understands the opposite policy comes to the opposite conclusion: he dismisses out-of-hand the idea of a metaphysical dichotomy. A faculty of perception, he knows, cannot be an adversary of the world or the body; it has no weapons with which to wage any such war; it has no function except to perceive.¹