This is one of the

This is philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

Philosophy bites is available at

www philosophy bites.com

The link between the mind and the body is one of the oldest puzzles in philosophy.

It seems odd to claim that our mental states are purely physical.

How can an idea or thought that say I want to go shopping be just a physical thing?

But if thoughts and ideas are not physical, then how can they interact with the physical world?

Professor David Papino, from University comes down firmly on one side of this argument.

David Papino, welcome to philosophy bias.

Nigel, thank you for asking me to do this. I'm glad to be here. of your

Thank you for asking me to do this. I'm glad to be here

The topic I want to concentrate on today is physicalism. Could you just explain what physicalism is and specifically physicalism about the mind.

Physicalism is the view that everything is physical.

And then of course they apply that general principle to the mind as well.

So in a world of thoughts and feelings and in particular in a world of

everything that's conscious, things, that it's life, something for you to experience.

Physicists want to say that too is physical.

That, for many people people is quite counterintuitive the idea that when you have a thought

that it could be actually a physical tangible thing.

I guess it is counterintuitive and I think it's very important for

physicalists to recognize that it's counterintuitive and explain why people find this

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