Because this part of the course is dealing with the philosophical foundation, this section is limited to the approach of Philosophy. Theories on the Essential Nature of Man Philosophies do not agree on the essential nature of human beings. They observe people and then speculate as to what is the essential nature of a human being. It is a theory. This theory says that man is composed of mind and body or spirit and flesh.
Matter occupies space.
Man has a body which can occupy matter but man can initiate activity in that space. Man is not just the butt of physical forces working on him. Because man can exert activity, we say that he or she has a mind. There is a distinction between mind and matter for educational purposes. Since mind is a different category from matter, we may conclude that mind is not matter, that it is immaterial.