The philosophy of the spirit ( Philosophy off Mind ) is the philosophical study of the nature of the Esprit (of the mental ), of the events, the functions and the mental properties, the Conscience, and their relationship with the body. This expression literally translates the anglophone expression used into analytical Philosophie. The term thus does not imply necessarily the existence of a spiritual entity (heart) but the study Philosophique of the Psychologie, presupposed on the cognitive competences, the states or the processes, events, provisions and functions which one usually calls “mental states”, the Représentation S, the feelings, the Croyance S, judgments.

The philosophy of the spirit wraps parts of the philosophy of sciences (in particular the philosophy of the Psychologie and others cognitive Sciences like the Neurosciences, the Linguistique or the Artificial intelligence), of philosophy of knowledge (how can we know something on these mental states), of Métaphysique (exists it mental entities? They are distinguished from the material entities and which are their relations?).

The philosophy of the spirit relating to the Métaphysique (which is distinguished from the preceding one) was represented by the Spiritualisme French, mainly in the figures of Louis Lavelle and Rene the Seine which founded in 1934 the collection " Philosophy of the esprit" in the editor Sapwood-Montaigne. The philosophy of the spirit is propagated until the ethical (is the spirit free?) and the Philosophy of the action with Maurice Blondel (philosopher).

The problem body-spirit

See also: Problem body-spirit, Psychosomatic

The problem body-spirit is the problem of the determination of the relations between the human body and the Esprit. Although this problem exists almost since the origin of philosophy (cf Plato), this problem is recognized since the XXe century (especially since Gilbert Ryle, Concept of spirit ) like a fundamental question, even like the key question of the Philosophie of the spirit under the English expression of Mind-body problem .

The problem body-spirit is primarily the problem of knowing how to explain the relations between the mental Esprit, or processes, and the body states or processes. It is for example for us obvious that our sensory experiments have their origin in stimuli, which reach us of the world external by the means of our bodies of the directions, and which these stimuli produce of the modifications of the state of our brain, causing in the final analysis the Perception of feelings which can be pleasant or unpleasant. It seems also obvious that we can drive our body in kind to satisfy a need or a desire. However, how may it be that the experiment Consciente can put moving a body, i.e a material object equipped with physicochemical properties? How can one want to be the Cause operation of our neurons and contraction of our muscles, so that they carry out what we propose to do? They are there some of the principal questions with which the philosophers of the spirit confronted themselves, since Descartes.

During the 8th council of the Church with Constantinople in 869 (Constantinople IV), he was issued the suppression of the Esprit in the 11th gun, the heart comprising from now on a spiritual part. It is of this time that date confusion between heart and Esprit. Previously, one associated the Esprit with the Pensée and the heart of the Sentiment. Trichotomy (body, heart and Spirit) was replaced by the dichotomy (body and heart). One thus passed from a vision of the Homme in which the heart balances the conflict between the body and the Esprit with a vision in which the body is harmonized with the heart or the Esprit.

Naturalism and its problems

Qualia

The qualia , in the singular quale , are defined like the properties of the significant experiment by which that done something to perceive this or that (color, its, etc). They are thus felt and associated subjective effects in a way specific to the mental states:

perceptive *expériences;
body *sensations (pain, hunger, pleasure, etc);
* Passion S and emotions.

By definition, these qualia is unknowable in the absence of a direct intuition; they are thus also incommunicable. The Existence and the Nature of these properties are one of the most important debates of the Philosophie of the spirit. This importance is due to the fact that the existence of the qualia refutes the Physicalisme, insofar as one holds them for irreducible phenomena.

The Intentionality

A mental state is known as " intentionnel" when it is directed towards an object. The object which aims at an intentional mental state necessarily does not exist in the world: if I believe that the king of France east bald person, my belief has well a contained (it describes a certain irrefutable fact), but it does not have a referent (no current irrefutable fact answers description that envelope my belief). The Intentionnalité thus recovers more than the simple capacity to aim at objects out of us: it generally applies to the capacity to represent irrefutable facts mentally. Here some examples of intentional states: belief, the desire, joy, the sorrow, the regret, the hope, disappointment, fear, dislike, etc

In Psychologie from an empirical point of view (1874) Franz Brentano affirms that the Intentionnalité constitutes the relevant criterion for a general distinction of the mental phenomena and physical phenomena: according to him, only of the mental states are intentional, and this property cannot be understood under the concepts that we apply successfully to the physical phenomena. The intentionality, apprehended like an intrinsic property of the mental states, constitutes one of the most powerful arguments in favor of the dualism, and raises serious difficulties for any theory materialist of the psychic phenomena.

The philosophy of the spirit and sciences

The human S are physical beings, and, as such, they are the objects of the examination and descriptions of the natural science. If the mental processes are not independent of the body processes, descriptions of the human being by the natural science have a fundamental importance for a philosophy of the spirit. There exist many scientific disciplines which study the processes related in one way or another to the mental one; for example: Data-processing Biology, , cognitive Science, Cybernetic, Linguistic, Medicine, Pharmacology, Psychology, etc

Neurobiology

Data processing

Psychology

The philosophy of the Spirit in the continental tradition

The philosophy of the Spirit is not specific to the only analytical philosophy. It names before all large running of the French Philosophie which extends from the beginning of the Années 1920 in the middle of the Années 1950. It gathers many philosophers who made a point of defending the Métaphysique against the supremacy of the Positivisme which, as of the second part of the life of Auguste Count, became a kind of Religiosité in the form of the " religious Positivism ".

Inspired by the Cartesianism, it was tardily justified by the influence of Jules Lachelier and Henri Bergson. It is inaugurated officially in 1934, with the foundation, in the editor Sapwood-Montaigne, of the collection " Philosophy of the esprit" by Louis Lavelle and Rene the Seine. Also called Spiritualism, this philosophical position maintains the Être, the reflection, the existence, the Conscience of oneself, the Liberté and the participation as of the central problems which it will not cease looking further into with the gleam of a valorization of interiority. She knew until the medium of the Années 1950 a considerable radiation in Europe by influencing philosophers in Belgium (Paul De Coster), in Germany (max Scheler), in Spain (Unamuno) and finally in Italy (Michele Sciacca, P. Ottonello) where she knows today a survival due in particular to a contribution of the philosophy of the religion.

The representative philosophers are:

…

Consequences of the philosophy of the spirit

References

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