Final answer:
Interactionist Dualism is a theory in philosophy that asserts a two-way interaction between the mind (non-physical substance) and the body (physical substance), arguing that each can affect the other, which is necessary to explain phenomena like consciousness and volition.
Step-by-step explanation:
Interactionist Dualism Defined
Interactionist Dualism is a philosophical theory concerning the relationship between the mind and body. It suggests that while these are two distinct substances, they interact with one another.
This perspective argues against the idea of physical determinism as proposed by materialism, asserting that mental states can cause physical events, and vice versa.
Under the umbrella of dualism, which posits that there are two fundamental kinds of substance—mind and body (or brain)—interactionist dualism specifically claims that the non-physical mind can influence the physical body and that the body can affect the mind.
This contradicts epiphenomenalism, which states that the body can influence the mind, but not the other way around, and parallelism, where mind and body do not causally interact but run on parallel courses, remaining coordinated without direct interaction.
Despite objections that vary from the mind's intangibility to arguments for physical monism, proponents of interactionist dualism argue that it is necessary to account for all phenomena of human experience, including consciousness, volition, and the sense of self.