Elements of Psychophysics, Vol. I

Therefore, the mode of appearance of the mind is always, at any one time, only one, because there is only one internal standpoint; meanwhile, every body, by contrast, appears in many different ways according to the multiplicity of external standpoints and the diversity of those standing upon them.

Thus, the previous way of thinking covers the most fundamental relationships between body and soul, which every basic view on the matter should seek to cover.

One more thing: body and soul go together; a change in the one corresponds to a change in the other. Why? Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), a prominent German philosopher who explored how two different substances—mind and matter—could act in unison. says: one can have various views on this. Two clocks fastened to the same board adjust their movement to each other through the mediation of this common fastening (provided, that is, they do not deviate too much from one another); this is the common dualistic Dualism: The belief that the mind and body are two distinct and separate substances that somehow interact. view of the relationship between body and soul. Someone could also move the hands of both clocks so that they always move harmoniously; that is the occasionalist Occasionalism: A theory suggesting that mind and body do not affect each other directly, but that God intervenes at every moment to make them correspond. view, according to which God produces the mental changes to match the physical ones and vice versa in constant harmony. They could also be set up so perfectly from the very beginning that they always go exactly with one another on their own, without needing assistance; that is the view of their pre-established harmony Pre-established Harmony: Leibniz’s own theory that God synchronized the soul and body like two perfect clocks at the moment of creation.. Leibniz forgot one view, and indeed the simplest possible one. They can also go harmoniously with one another—indeed, never diverge at all—because they are not two different clocks at all. With this, the "common board," the constant assistance, and the artificiality of the initial setup are spared. What appears to the external observer as the organic clock with a mechanism and movement of organic wheels and levers—or as its most important and essential part—appears to itself internally quite differently: as its own mind with the flow of sensations, drives, and thoughts. It should not be offensive that man is called a clock here. If he is called so in one respect, he should not be called so in every respect.

The difference in an appearance, however, does not depend solely on the difference of the standpoint, but also on the difference of those standing upon it. A blind person, at just as favorable an external standpoint as a see-ing—