Materialism is “The metaphysical doctrine that matter with its motions and qualities is the ultimate reality of all things” (Miller 156). This basically means that the nature of the world is entirely dependent on matter. Idealism is “The metaphysical theory that all things are constituted by mind and its ideas” (Miller 132). This basically means that the nature of the world is entirely dependent on the mind and its ideas. A materialist would believe that the mind is only part of the matter that our nature is made up of, and not things we believe in such as God and our emotions such as love. That is not the case with Idealism, Idealist believe in what the mind creates as ideas therefore, they believe in such things as love and religions.
As for a solution to the mind-body problem, being the question, “If the mind and body are essentially different substances, then how can there be any causal connection between them” (Miller 119)? I believe that the mind and body are dependent of each other. What is the mind in a jar? Nothing. What is the body without the mind? Nothing. The mind relies on the body to act in the way that it transmits the messages, and the body relies on the mind so that it can function and do its daily activities. I believe that this has a connection to the Materialism and Idealism debate.
Materialism and Idealism are dependent of each other. If we do not have the mind we do not have the matter, therefore we would not have anything to test, As in a scientific experiment. In conclusion, I believe that there should be a happy medium between Materialism and Idealism, because the world is dependent of both the mind and matter.
