Benjamin asked:

I have been wondering about the philosophy of the mind a lot lately. I look at it first through the eyes
of the materialist and say that brain states are identical to mental states and actions happen for
causes not reasons. But this is does not seem quite right. In my mind I have a thing I call the self. So I
separate a mind and a self and a brain. I am just trying to figure out if in classic thinking a mind and a
self have always been two separate things or just one. If they are two separate things are either of
them physical entities? If not then how do they affect the brain causing bodily actions? I guess I just
have the classic interaction problem sorry.

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You wonder whether mind and body are "two separate things or just one." Perhaps you should ask
yourself whether, as your question seems to assume, the mind is a "thing" at all. Many philosophers,
Aristotle for one, and Gilbert Ryle (much later) for another, have questioned this assumption. And, of
course, it the mind is not a "thing" (like the body) then the issue "goes away." Perhaps the mind is not
a thing (and so not a separate thing from the body) but rather the way the body functions, perhaps as
is illustrated in one of Plato's dialogues, like the music played on a musical instrument like the lyre.
The lyre and the music played on it are not, of course the same, but is it because they are not the
same "things?" Is the music played on the instrument a "thing" the way the "lyre" is a "thing?"
Suppose you are making music on an instrument, and you take the instrument away; does the music
remain behind?

Ken Stern