Neutral monism

Neutral monism is the philosophical thesis that both mind and matter from one and the same elements exist, which in turn represent neither matter nor spirit and as such are neutral. The spirituality or materiality is attributed to the relationship of the neutral elements to each other.

One can say that the Neutral monism was first introduced by the psychophysical parallelism of Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher of the 17th century. A later variant was proposed by Bertrand Russell, from which the name comes. However, the actual classic neutral monist is the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, for which neither mental nor physical sensory elements, either physical or psychological in nature, depending on the relationship they enter. Mach has won his conception through development of psychophysical parallelism by Gustav Theodor Fechner. William James also has represented in his panpsychistischen teaching a neutral monism.

The American philosopher Donald Davidson took a position of mind-body identity, which he called " anomalous monism ". This is related to the theories discussed here, although not identical. ( " Abnormal " means for the spiritual in this context, " not only from physical laws derivable " and not " weird ". )