Leonardo Polo and the Mind-Body Problem

Abstract

The mind-body problem is not only a philosophical problem but also a cultural one. Polo's philosophy offers an ambitious and profound framework for the study of the body and of its place with respect to the human person. His approach is not confined to a single dimension of his philosophical method of the abandonment of the mental limit, but to all of them. A central aspect of this view is seeing the body not as a thing but as life, that is, as vital activity. Considered from the person, what we call body is 'received life', while 'added life' is the continuation that makes it apt to being the essence or manifestation of that person. In order to understand the body from this point of view, notions as synchrony and inhibition are central, as well as the question about whether or not Polo's proposal is a kind of dualism.