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descartes mind body theory essay
what is descartes argument for dualism
descartes mind body theory essay
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Descartes views on the differentiation between the mind and the body has given rise to much thought regarding the interaction between these supposedly distinct substances. Through examining correlations between Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia it is evident that Descartes himself struggled to plausibly identify the interaction among the mental and material in relation to causation. This essay will investigate Elizabeth’s quires into the causational relationship between the mind and body by explaining and investigating Descartes distinction between the mental and physical as separate substances, Elizabeth’s concern in relation to the problem of interaction, and Descartes response to these concerns.
The idea that there are two fundamental kinds of distinct substances: material (physical thing) and mental (incorporeal, thinking thing) is a philosophical position inline with claims among theology that believe an independent sphere of existence, separate from that of the physical world, is occupied by immortal spirits (Hart 1996) and therefore may have been developed to substantiate the existence of God. Describing the mind as a “non-extended, thinking thing” and the body as an “extended, non-thinking thing,” Descartes insists in his 6th Meditation that even after great bodily change a material substance still remains itself only in an altered form. As such it follows that the basis of what make this thing that which it is must rely on a distinct non-extended substance. Descartes continues by explaining the possibility to the mind existing without the form of a material body, as a substance whose essence is thought, and therefore is undoubtedly distinct from the physical. While both being ontologically separate substances, the essential ...
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...ole. As Descartes starts in Principles, Part 1: “But we also experience within ourselves certain other things, which must not be referred either to the mind alone or to the body alone. These arises, as will be made clear in the appropriate place, from the close and intimate union of our mind with the body.” For example the motion of an eye can produce modes of sensation within the mind and it is that combination of both mental and physical in human beings that causes the perception of a chair (or whatever sight one may be viewing). As the mind acting on the body through voluntary action and the body on the mind through both perception and sensation is constantly experienced, an interaction between the mental and material in obvious. Descartes maintains that human beings possess the primal notion of substantial union however it is often perplexing and misapplied.
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Most philosophers in the seventeenth century were offering a response to Descartes’ dualism. In Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he presents an argument for a mind-body dualism. Mind-body dualism is a distinction in regard to substance. The mind is a substance completely different than the body. The mind is where thought takes place. Body is extensive substance. According to Descartes, the mind controls the body’s movements and it is also where perception takes place. Elizabeth of Bohemia, a correspondent of Descartes, points out a problem with this mind-body dualism. If it is the case that mind and body are substances of completely different kinds it does not seem possible for the mind to interact with the body. How is it that the mind, being a completely different kind of substance, could come into contact with the body in order to make the body move? This is one problem Cavendish will attempt to resolve in her argument. Cavendish will attempt to reject dualism and argue for a type of monism consisting of animate (thinking) and inanimate (not thinking) matter. Her system can resolve the interaction problem because there would only be one substance. If it is the case that there is only one kind of substance then there could not be an interaction problem because an interaction problem of this sort inherently requires more than one
Philosophers try to answer, or simply ponder upon, many questions. One of them being what we fundamentally are; that is, are we a material body or an immortal soul. Are we a pile of bones and skin that walks, pumps blood, eats, etc. or are we mostly an amorphous, intangible soul? What is our main function, which one is better, or more fundamental? The way one would answer these questions depends on the philosophical practice they subscribe to and instill. Skeptical philosophers, like Sextus Empiricus, examine this question while believing true knowledge is impossible. Skeptics search for the truth anyway, just as Rene Descartes searches for truth in his Meditations. Through the works of Rene Descartes, illuminated by Empiricus and Simon Blackburn,
In conjunction with this theory, any matter is known through the mind. This reasoning was used as a basis toward the dualism of the mind and body. The mind is a thinking entity. It has the ability to imagine, dream, and ultimately encompass the aspects that are not fundamentally matter. The body exists outside the mind. It is the connection to the external world based on the scientific properties of mass, size, shape, and motion. Descartes argues that the mind is distinct from the body. The mind thinks and does not have scientific properties. One’s body is a non-thinking thing. This distinction leads Descartes to conclude that the mind is not the same as the body. There is no characteristic that is categorized as both mind and body; the body can be changed, the mind cannot. In continuation, the mind can exist without the body and the body can exist without the mind since each thing is distinct. Descartes later explains how the brain is not the same as the mind. The brain is the connection between the mind and body in a human being. Descartes argues that matter cannot be the same as anything mental. The mind is affected by the brain, providing one with insight into the external world. Also, the mind can influence the brain, hence one’s body being controlled by the mind. However, it is possible for the brain to cease functionally and the mind to still operate. Essentially, one can conclude that the
Elizabeth writes a letter to Descartes asking him to explain to her the relationship “there is between the soul, which is immaterial, and the body, which is material” (Margaret A.: p16). She seeks this clarification particularly on the aspect of how the soul influences the body movements. This question comes following a claim that Descartes had made “regarding the body and the soul” (Gordon B. and Katherine J.: p17 -19). He intimated that the body and the soul exist as single entities and that each has autonomous function. This is found in the philosophy of the dualism.
Our mind and our body are undoubtedly separate from each other. A mind can survive without a body, and, likewise, a body is just house for the mind. In The Meditations, Descartes describes this concept in his dualist theory in the second of multiple Meditations. We can reach this conclusion by first understanding that the mind can survive any destruction of the body, and then realizing that you are identical to your mind and not your body. In other words, you are your thoughts and experiences – not your physical body. Finally, you cannot doubt your own existence, because the act of doubting is, itself, and act of thinking, and to think is to exist as a “thinking thing,” or Res Cogitans.
Descartes is hopeful to prove subsistence of the external world (physical objects located in space), and so he returns to a very basic stage and acknowledges the existence of minds as an immaterial substance and God. He then accepts that matter exists as long as it is not a projection of his own mind or God. As Descartes previously established the existence of God as a perfect being, he therefore has concluded that God is not a deceiver. This very clear concept leads him to accept his clear and distinct sensory experiences are a result of external objects of material nature. Once these corporeal things (objects of a tangible, material nature) can be considered as self-evident ideas, they can no longer be products of the mind or God.
Descartes is talking about something called interactionist substance dualism. He is stating that the mind and body causally interact with one another. This can be summed up to say that as easily as the mind can cause changes in the body, the body can also cause changes in the mind. Therefore the mind and body must be intimately united. An example of this is having the intuition to raise your hand.
. Its most famous defender is Descartes, who argues that as a subject of conscious thought and experience, he cannot consist simply of spatially extended matter. His essential nature must be non-m...
Every since Plato introduced the idea of dualism thousands of years ago meta-physicians have been faced with the mind-body problem. Even so Plato idea of dualism did not become a major issue of debate in the philosophical world until the seventeenth century when French philosopher Rene Descartes publicized his ideas concerning the mental and physical world. During this paper, I will analyze the issue of individuation and identity in Descartes’ philosophical view of the mind-body dualism. I will first start by explaining the structure of Cartesian dualism. I will also analyze the challenges of individuation and identity as they interact with Descartes. With a bit of luck, subsequently breaking down Descartes’ reasoning and later on offering my response, I can present wit a high degree of confidence that the problems of individuation and identity offer a hindrance to the Cartesians’ principle of mind-body dualism. I give a critical analysis of these two problems, I will first explain the basis of Descartes’ philosophical views.
Outline and assess Descartes' arguments for the conclusion that mind and body are distinct substances.
Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six different steps that he named "Meditations" because of the state of mind he was in while he was contemplating all these different ideas. His six meditations are "One:Concerning those things that can be called into doubt", "Two:Concerning the Nature of the Human mind: that it is better known than the Body", "Three: Concerning God, that he exists", "Four: Concerning the True and the False", "Five: Concerning the Essence of Material things, and again concerning God, that he exists" and finally "Six: Concerning the Existence of Material things, and the real distinction between Mind and Body". Although all of these meditations are relevant and necessary to understand the complete work as a whole, the focus of this paper will be the first meditation.
Descartes makes a careful examination of what is involved in the recognition of a specific physical object, like a piece of wax. By first describing the wax in a manner such that “everything is present in the wax that appears needed to enable a body to be known as distinctly as possible” (67), he shows how easily our senses help to conceive our perception of the body. But even if such attributes are modified or removed, we still recognize the changed form, as the same piece of wax. This validates Descartes’ claim that “wax itself never really is the sweetness of the honey, nor the fragrance of the flowers, nor the whiteness, nor the shape, nor the sound” (67), and the only certain knowledge we gain of the wax is that “it is something extended, flexible, and mutable” (67). This conclusion forces us to realize that it is difficult to understand the true nature of the wax, and its identity is indistinguishable from other things that have the same qualities as the wax. After confirming the nature of a human mind is “a thinking thing” (65), Descartes continues that the nature of human mind is better known than the nature of the body.
One of the ways in which Descartes attempts to prove that the mind is distinct from the body is through his claim that the mind occupies no physical space and is an entity with which people think, while the body is a physical entity and cannot serve as a mechanism for thought. [1]
In Meditation Six entitled “Concerning the Existence of Material Things, and Real Distinction between the Mind and Body”, one important thing Descartes explores is the relationship between the mind and body. Descartes believes the mind and body are separated and they are two difference substances. He believes this to be clearly and distinctly true which is a Cartesian quality for true knowledge. I, on the other hand, disagree that the mind and body are separate and that the mind can exist without the body. First, I will present Descartes position on mind/body dualism and his proof for such ideas. Secondly, I will discuss why I think his argument is weak and offer my own ideas that dispute his reasoning while I keep in mind how he might dispute my argument.
Descartes is a very well-known philosopher and has influenced much of modern philosophy. He is also commonly held as the father of the mind-body problem, thus any paper covering the major answers of the problem would not be complete without covering his argument. It is in Descartes’ most famous work, Meditations, that he gives his view for dualism. Descartes holds that mind and body are com...