Final answer:
The belief that the human spirit and body exist as distinct substances in perfect constitution is known as dualism. Variations of dualism discuss different ways the mind and body might interact, reflecting the historical and ongoing debate in philosophy and science regarding the relationship between the non-physical and physical aspects of human beings.
Step-by-step explanation:
Explanation of Dualism
The belief that the human spirit and the human body exist in perfect constitution is called dualism. In this philosophical view, humans are thought to be composed of two distinct substances: the physical body and the non-physical mind or soul. Dualism acknowledges the existence of both matter and spirit as separate entities. This conception has been a central part of Western religious and philosophical thought, particularly due to its prominence in the writings of René Descartes. Descartes, a proponent of Cartesian dualism, argued that the mind (or soul) exists independently of the body and could be characterized by thinking, imagining, hoping, dreaming, reasoning, and more. A challenge to dualism comes from materialism, which asserts that only physical matter exists and disputes the interaction or influence of non-physical entities on the material world.
Variations of dualism include interactionism which suggests that minds and bodies interact, epiphenomenalism which posits that the body can affect the mind but not vice versa, and parallelism where the mind and body exist in coordinated separate dimensions. These concepts address the intricate relationship between the mind and body, a topic that continues to inspire debate in both philosophy and science.