Why is the Mind-Body Problem Both an Ancient and a Medieval Problem?

Abstract

The present article aims to contribute to ongoing scholarly debates by examining the similarities and differences between the conceptualization of the soul-body relationship in early philosophical traditions and the formulation of the mind-body problem in the post-Cartesian framework. To achieve this objective, the article is organized into two primary sections. The first section presents the central arguments of scholars who assert that the soul-body problem of ancient and medieval philosophy is distinct from the mind-body problem emerging in the modern period. The second section of the article critically evaluates these arguments, highlighting the continuities between the soul-body relationship in ancient-Hellenistic and medieval thought and the mind-body relationship in modern and contemporary philosophy. This article contends that the soul-body and mind-body problems, alongside the various approaches developed across different historical periods, should be understood as exhibiting a problematic continuity. It argues that, despite differing terminologies, a persistent duality problem can be traced from antiquity through to the modern era.