«Ideas, or Motions in the Brain»
The Joseph Priestley-Thomas Reid Debate about Psychological Materialism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Contrastescontrastes.v28i2.14372Keywords:
experimental method, dualism, materialism, mind-body interaction, divine omnipresenceAbstract
In the second half of the 18th century, Thomas Reid and Joseph Priestley debated on the nature of mind and its interaction with body. Within the framework of the defence of Christian religion and in the name of experimentalist and Newtonian methodological principles, the authors argue for completely different proposals about the interaction between mind and matter. Their divergences are rooted in their interpretation of the Newtonian method and their conceptions of matter. These different points of view result in two attitudes: a dualist, more conservative one on the part of Reid and a materialist, heterodox and innovative one on the part of Priestley.
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