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Descartes theory of dualism
The mind and body philosophy essay
Descartes theory of dualism
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This is a comparative article regarding the two philosophers Descartes and Ryle. These two philosophers have very different view points and ideas about the mind and body; and the relation between the two.
Of the two philosophers, I will write about Descartes first. Descartes is a dualist. He believes that the mind and the body are two separate things that interact with each other. He explains that the body is a mechanical thing that’s in the physical world; this mechanism is then controlled by the mind which is not in the physical world. He goes on to say that the mind is who a person really is and the body is only a vessel of which we use to interact with the material world. If this vessel is impaired in any way, the mind remains the same
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and thus, the person is the same. For example, if one were to lose their leg, the mechanism that the person uses is now damaged, but the person (the mind) remains the same. Descartes believed that even in death of the body, the mind could continue to exist without it. This theory is difficult to wrap the brain around. If one was to die, and yet still have a conscience mind, where exactly would it be? Would it be aware of its existence without a body and if so, what would it do? All are questions that Descartes has difficulty with. The second philosopher, Ryle, was a logical behaviorist.
In many of Ryle’s writings, he focuses his attention on disproving dualism. He begins by explaining the foundations of dualism. At his time, this foundation was the most largely accepted philosophy and thus he refers to it as the “Official Doctrine.” After explaining the official doctrine, Ryle says that dualism makes a “category mistake.” A category mistake is very simply, a mistake in the categorization of things. For example, if one was going to show a young man a university, you would take him to see the classrooms, the library, the offices, and the dorms. If the young man, after seeing all of this said, “Well, I have seen the classrooms, the library, the offices and the dorms, but where is the university?” Very clearly, the young man is mistaken, for he has put “the university” in the same category as its parts. In fact, the classrooms, the library, the offices and the dorms are what make up the university as a whole. Similarly, Ryle says that dualism makes the mistake of referring to the mind and the body as two separate parts when in fact, they are both “one.” He says that they both, in togetherness, make up a person. He goes on to say that because of this, one can understand what’s going on in another persons mind, as well as his own by observing bodily behavior. Whereas, the dualist believes that no one can understand what is going on in another persons mind, that it is completely sealed and private to the person. Ryle makes a compelling argument. If in fact, the mind and the body are one, then it seems only logical that through behavior of ones body, a person can also see the behavior of ones
mind. This is very different then the dualists idea of a person being he mind and controlling the body. Ryle makes an excellent point. People seem to do this all the time. When you look at someone you know, you can identify what kind of mental state and mood the person is in by paying attention to bodily actions and expressions.
Outline and assess Descartes' arguments for the conclusion that mind and body are distinct substances.
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.
existed in life, the physical and the nonphysical. He broke his theory of Dualism into two
René Descartes was the 17th century, French philosopher responsible for many well-known philosophical arguments, such as Cartesian dualism. Briefly discussed previously, according to dualism, brains and the bodies are physical things; the mind, which is a nonphysical object, is distinct from both the brain and from all other body parts (Sober 204). Sober makes a point to note Descartes never denied that there are causal interactions between mental and physical aspects (such as medication healing ailments), and this recognition di...
In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes states “I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in as far as I am only a thinking and unextended thing, and as, on the other hand, I possess a distinct idea of body, in as far as it is only an extended and unthinking thing”. [1] The concept that the mind is an intangible, thinking entity while the body is a tangible entity not capable of thought is known as Cartesian Dualism. The purpose of this essay is to examine how Descartes tries to prove that the mind or soul is, in its essential nature, entirely distinct from the
Therefore, in Meditation two in Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes proves to show the distinction between the mind and that of the body. Descartes knows without a doubt that he is a thinking thing who has certain powers such as affirming, denying, sensing, imagining etc. The example that he provided with the piece of wax showed how we could misjudge and come to error when perceiving a thing. Descartes is able to prove that he exists in the same way that he judged the existence of the wax and how he saw it. Most importantly, Descartes comes to the conclusion that the intellect of the mind is what helps distinct and perceive something, rather than other factors.
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 agrees with dualism, and stands by the mind being independent of the body and vice versa. We agree with the ideas of dualism every time we say, “I am a
The desire to avoid dualism has been the driving motive behind much contemporary work on the mind-body problem. Gilbert Ryle made fun of it as the theory of 'the ghost in the machine', and various forms of behaviorism and materialism are designed to show that a place can be found for thoughts, sensations, feelings, and other mental phenomena in a purely physical world. But these theories have trouble accounting for consciousness and its subjective qualia. As the science develops and we discover facts, dualism does not seems likely to be true.
What is the mind-body problem? The mind-body problem is the main question of trying to distinguish between the qualities of the mental and physical (Schulz & Schulz, 2016). Many scholars seemed to always argue about the mind and body as to whether they were separate or essentially the same thing. Descartes decided to tackle this question head on and he came up with some interesting answers to
René Descartes laid the foundations for Cartesian Dualism within his Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes provides most of his dualist view within the second and sixth meditations. Dualism is the belief, or school, within philosophy of mind that the mind and body are separate. Cartesian Dualism, specifically, is essentially substance dualism, which argues that the mind and body are of separate substances, in Descartes’ case, the mind being spiritual and the body being physical. This viewpoint was a common one during Hobbe...
...nclude, Ryle is correct in his challenge of Descartes’ Cartesian dualism, the mind and body are not two separate parts as dictated by dualist, rather the working of the mind are not distinct from the body. As a result, an observer can understand the mind of another through the actions of the body. It is the combination that makes up a human, human, as they are one and the same.
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...
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.
While the great philosophical distinction between mind and body in western thought can be traced to the Greeks, it is to the influential work of René Descartes, French mathematician, philosopher, and physiologist, that we owe the first systematic account of the mind/body relationship. As the 19th century progressed, the problem of the relationship of mind to brain became ever more pressing.