無論在奧斯定的基督教哲學還是朱熹的宋明新儒學中，對心身問題的認識都必然涉及對人類生存的個體性與關係性的理解。由於奧斯定把人的靈魂看成不同於物質身體的另一實體，並且僅僅從個人靈魂同上帝的垂直關係來界說內在的人性，所以他的人性論是以靈魂與身體、自我與他人、人類與自然的主客二分及其導致的關係性的缺失為特徵。朱熹心目中的人則是以形神統一為基礎的、處在天人合一的和諧關係中的存在者，但由於他未能揭示出精神存在的相對獨立性及其與物質存在的差異性，所以他對形與神、人與天、多與一的關係性的認識最終被「理一」的絕對性和排他性所吞噬。

In both the Christian philosophy of Augustine and the Neo- Confucianism of Zhu Xi, reflections on the mind-body problem necessarily involved their understandings of individuality and relationship in human existence. Augustine regarded the human soul as a different subject from the material body, and he defined the inherent human nature as arising solely from the vertical relationship between each individual soul and God, so his thinking of individuality is characterized by the subject-object dichotomy between soul and body, ego and other, human and nature, which as a result brings about the loss of relationship. In Zhu Xi’s view, the individual person is a spiritbody unity in harmony with heaven and nature, but he fails to discover the relative independence of spiritual existence and its difference from material existence, so his understanding of the relationship between body and spirit, human and heaven, diversity and oneness are finally replaced by the absoluteness and exclusiveness of “Li Yi” (the Unique Principle).