Placebo effect and mental causation in the context of mind-body problem

This thesis, titled "Placebo Effect and Mental Causation in the Context of the Mind-Body Problem", examines the mind-body problem from historical and contemporary perspectives, focusing on its foundations and reflections in contemporary theories. The study, while evaluating the explanations of how the mind and body affect each other, includes the placebo effect in the discussion as a concrete example of mental causation. In the thesis, firstly, how the mind-body problem has been shaped since the Descartes era and the impact of Cartesian thought on this field are examined. It has been discussed that the Cartesian categories, which treat the mind and body as separate substances, formed a basis for today's theories, but this situation may also cause theories to enter vicious cycles. The strengths and weaknesses of dualistic and monistic approaches to solving fundamental questions such as the interaction problem have been evaluated. The placebo effect has been used as an important tool in the study due to the fact that mental processes have the capacity to lead to physical consequences. The thesis discusses how the placebo effect provides a framework for questioning the explanatory capacity of contemporary philosophy of mind theories. In this context, the adequacy of different theories to explain the placebo effect has been examined and the limitations of the explanations offered by these theories have been evaluated. As a result, the thesis states that the theories on the mind-body problem cannot fully escape the influence of Cartesian thought and therefore have difficulty in explaining the mind- body relationship in a complete integrity. It has been stated that the placebo effect provides an important field of study to deepen the discussions on mental causation and to understand mind- body interaction.