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Wolfgang Fach   +49 (0)761 20721 52

Dual Aspect Monism

Correlations between mental and material states are an intrinsic feature of mind-matter models which consider such states as dual aspects of an underlying reality that itself is neither mental nor material. An early version of such a model is due to Spinoza, and since then variants thereof have recurrently been formulated, mostly outside philosophical mainstream directions. Well- known names in the modern philosophical history of dual-aspect monism are Strawson, Nagel, and Chalmers. From the perspective of philosophically interested scientists, Wolfgang Pauli and C.G. Jung are to be mentioned (in addition, e.g., Bohm and d’Espagnat). In a series of publications, partly with a history-of-science flavor, we could systematically re - construct the most significant characteristics of the ideas of Pauli and Jung. For this purpose, the comprehensive correspondence of Pauli, edited in eight volumes by Karl von Meyenn, was enormously helpful. We worked out how the apparently related position of neutral monism (Mach, James, Russell) deviates from the conception of Pauli and Jung. A key difference is that the psychophysically neutral reality in the Pauli-Jung scheme is empirically accessible only in an indirect fashion, through its aspects.