Izvorni znanstveni članak
Solving the Mind-Body Problem: A Comparison between the Solutions of Joseph Priestley and Ruđer Josip Bošković
Francis Brassard
; Rochester Institute of Technology Croatia, Dubrovnik
Sažetak
The mind-body problem has been a major concern of philosophers. Since the time of the Renaissance, scientists dealing with the problems of the natural world also joined in the discussion. This article looks at the contributions of two important figures of 18th–century natural philosophy, namely Joseph Priestley and Ruđer Josip Bošković. It is a well-known fact that Priestley’s solution to this problem antagonized his colleague from Dubrovnik. Less known, however, are the religious or spiritual reasons why he used Bošković’s notion of unextended points of matter as the basis of his solution. After presenting these reasons and establishing their connections with a specific set of presuppositions underlying monist systems of thought, the present article looks at Bošković’s own solution that assumes a dualistic view of human nature, a solution relying on his notions of forces relative to the distances between unextended points, center of gravity and compenetration as discussed in his Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in natura existentium (1763).
Ključne riječi
Ruđer Josip Bošković; Joseph Priestley; mind-body problem; monism; dualism; notion of the soul; structure of the material world.
Hrčak ID:
240930
URI
Datum izdavanja:
25.6.2019.
Posjeta: 771 *