The distinction present between the mind and body

Human beings are thought of as a combination of mind and body, and it is assumed that there is a union between them. Although the mind and body may or may not correspond and interact with each other, it is scientifically unclear whether it is true that they both affect each other. René Descartes, a famous French philosopher who gave grand contributions to the mind body problem, viewed the mind as distinct from matter, and so laid the groundwork on the controversy for interactionism, which dictated the mind and body were separate. Furthermore, the different sectors of the medical field and dualistic theories propose that the mind and the body are relatively distinct.

An attempt to understand and grasp what the mind truly is has paved the way for new fields in research. First of all, the mind is elucidated as “the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.” Based on that information it can be assumed that the mind is like our window to the physical world, but it is crucial to note that certain aspects of our personality define it. Additionally, our perceptual experiences are deemed to be influenced by a stimulus that arrives at our sensory organs and have the power to cause changes in our mental states. But, how is it “possible for conscious experiences to arise out of a lump of gray matter endowed with nothing but electrochemical properties (wiki)?” This is precisely where psychologists come into play since they focus on understanding people, the mind, and human behavior. Psychologists perform countless experiments and research studies in order to elucidate on how we act, feel, and think, and additionally treat mental illness...

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...d as nonmaterial and accordingly it does not follow the laws of nature. Descartes states, “as regards body in particular, we have only the notion of extension, which entails the notions of shape and motion; and as regards the soul on its own, we have only the notion of thought, which includes the perceptions of the intellect and the inclinations of the will (AT III 665: CSMK 218).” Therefore, Descartes is elaborating that the soul is an extension of the mind, and further distinguishes the notions of the body, as a physical entity, and the soul, as something notable through thought and perception. Furthermore, the mind is influenced through perception of physical and external features and the body reacts accordingly to Though he laid the groundwork for these beliefs in the 1630s, they are still prominent and controversial topics today and have yet to be invalidated.