Parallelism
Parallelism is a theory of mind-body interaction that accepts that such interaction is deeply problematic. According to parallelists, there is no direct causal link between the mind and the body: the mind does not affect the body, and the body does not affect the mind.
Parallelism is, it has to be admitted, a bizarre theory. There certainly seems to be a strong connection between our mental lives and our physical lives. Mental events and physical events are correlated with almost perfect consistency. This, surely, can be no coincidence. How, then, can the parallelist explain this?
There are two types of parallelism--occasionalism and pre-arranged harmony--each of which proposes a different solution to this problem. Occasionalism suggests that God continuously intervenes in our lives, ensuring that the harmony between our physical and mental lives is preserved. Pre-arranged harmony, meanwhile, is the idea that God ordained this harmony when he set the universe in motion.
Neither type of parallelism, it is generally agreed, is particularly satisfactory. The main problem with the parallelist solution to the problem of mind-body interaction is that it contains a deep inconsistency. The motivation for parallelism, in both of its forms, is that it is immensely difficult to explain how a non-physical mind can interact with the physical world. Parallelists respond to this difficulty by denying that such interaction takes place. In invoking God to explain the correlation between our mental and physical lives, though, the parallelist assumes that such interaction can and does take place. God is a non-physical being, and so him causing physical events is no less mysterious than us doing so.
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