Dualism

In Western philosophy, ideas on mind/body dualism originate at least as far back as Plato (424 - 348 BC) and Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) and deal with speculations as to the existence of an incorporeal soul which bore the faculties of intelligence and wisdom. Plato and Aristotle maintained, for different reasons, that people's "intelligence" (a faculty of the mind or soul) could not be identified with, or explained in terms of, their physical body.

In the West, the most well known version of dualism is attributed to René Descartes (1641), who held that the mind is a nonphysical substance. Descartes was the first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self-awareness, and to distinguish this from the brain, which was said to be the seat of intelligence.