between the mind and body. The popular form of substance dualism was adopted after the difficulties of Cartesian dualism could not be overcome. Rene Descartes stated that the nonphysical and the physical could not interact. this became a problem in dualism since the nonphysical mind needed to interact with the physical body. These difficulties provided a motive for the move to popular substance dualism. The first major argument for substance dualism is religion. Each of the major religions place belief in life after death; that there is an immortal soul that will survive death. This very closely resembles substance dualism. The mind can be substituted for the immortal soul. In fact the two are almost interchangeable. This argument is primarily the basis for my own belief in substance dualism. My personal experiences as a religion student give me insight into this argument. The second major argument for substance dualism is irreducibility. this points to a variety of mental phenomena that no physical explanation could account for what is going on. An example would be the quality and meaningful content of human thoughts and beliefs. These things cannot be reduced to purely physical terms, hence irreducibility. This is also another good argument that I can understand from personal experiences. I cannot reduce my reactions and feelings toward how a steak tastes to a mathematical equation. This is the same idea. The final argument for substance dualism is parapsychological phenomena. Men...
