The Mind-Body Problem and World 3: In Defense of Karl Popper's Pluralistic Interactionalism

The mind-body problem is usually discussed within the framework of monistic (physicalism, solipsism) or dualistic (parallelism, epiphenomenalism) approaches. Pluralistic interactionism is Popper’s attempt to reformulate and offer his own tentative solution to this classical philosophical problem. Important new ideas to substantiate Popper’s concept are metaphysical realism, World 3 as a world of culture, emergent evolution and non-reductionism, direct and indirect interaction on all levels of cosmic evolution (at least three worlds), higher functions of language, hierarchy of levels of the mind, objective knowledge. The article demonstrates the enlightenment character of Popper’s pluralistic interactionism. From this perspective, the author defends it against the criticism of those who recognize the existence of the third realm but reject it in Popper’s version.