ABSTRACT
The central weakness of the materialist approach is that it never explains precisely how a chemical can give rise to an experience. In basic terms, Materialism fails to explain how a physical thing can apparently become something utterly unlike a physical thing, namely a thought, while actually remaining a physical thing all the time. There are, of course, also the various materialist evasions of the problem, such as behaviourism, epiphenomenalism, and the like. In essence, these are theories of how to avoid the issue with a clear conscience. The other form of philosophical reductionism, Idealism, attempts to redefine all experiences of physical things as experiences of thoughts. From the unconscious the process of contextualization elaborates the experience of the two realms of matter and mind in a fashion analogous to translating the same primary text into two radically different and unrelated languages.
