Meanings
- uncountablehuman sciencesThe doctrine that only material substances exist and may possess both physical and nonphysical properties.
What's radical about property dualism is that it claims that, besides all of these physical properties, the brain has some nonphysical properties.
2005, Ian Ravenscroft, Philosophy of Mind: A Beginner's Guide, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 192 more examples
We have seen reasons to affirm property dualism: Consciousness and conscious states are mental and not physical. But what about the bearer of consciousness? Is it immaterial as well, or is it the brain or body or something else that is physical?
2002, J. P. Moreland, What is the Soul? Recovering Human Personhood in a Scientific Age, Norcross, Georgia: Ravi Zacharias Internaitonal Ministries, →ISBN, page 27Substance dualism leaves room for the possibility that the soul might be able to exist apart from the body, either before birth or after death; property dualism does not. Property dualism allows for the compatibility of mental and physical causation, since the cause of an action might under one aspect be describable as a physical event in the brain and under another aspect as a desire, emotion, or thought; substance dualism usually requires causal interaction between the soul and the body.
2005, Ted Honderich, editor, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 221, column 2
Origin
From property + dualism. Coined by Canadian philosopher Patricia Churchland in 1980.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
German Eigenschaftsdualismus
- EigenschaftsdualismusTranslations
Polish dualizm własności
- dualizm własnościTranslations
Swedish egenskapsdualism
- egenskapsdualismTranslations
Cite this entry
property dualism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/property%20dualism
“property dualism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/property%20dualism. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “property dualism,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/property%20dualism.
Source: property dualism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.