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Biological psychology as a scientific discipline later emerged from a variety of scientific and philosophical traditions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In philosophy, the first issues is how to approach what is known as the "mind-body problem," namely the explanation of the relationship, if any, that obtains between minds, or mental processes, and bodily states or processes. Dualism is a family of views about the relationship between mind and physical matter. It begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical. In Western Philosophy, some of the earliest discussions of dualist ideas are in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Each of these maintained, but for different reasons, that human "intelligence" (a faculty of the mind or soul) could not be identified with, or explained in terms of, his physical body. However, the best-known version of dualism is due to René Descartes (expressed in his 1641, Meditations on First Philosophy), and holds that the mind is a non-extended, non-physical substance. Descartes was the first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self-awareness, and to distinguish this from the brain, which was the seat of intelligence.…
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Rene Descartes was a brilliant thinker, philosopher, scientist, physiologist, and early psychologist whose theory of mind-body connection has become an integral part of modern medicine (Goodwin, 2008). His dualist view, asserted the mind was ethereal and autonomous in relation to the physical and strictly material body, and to account for their interaction, he proposed the pineal gland was where the intersection of the two transpired (Goodwin, 2008). He theorized the mechanistic, reflexive nature of certain human behaviors, although his one caveat was that reasoning and thoughts were unique properties of the human soul (Wickens, 2005). Descartes 's work laid some of the fundamental parameters for modern thought in psychology, encouraged further research on the localization of brain function, and promoted further experimental research of the nervous system (Goodwin, 2008).…
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Based upon the belief that the mind and body are two separate entities, philosophers, such as Rene Descartes, support the Substance Dualism theory of mind, arguing that the mind, which is a thinking entity, may exist without the body, which is a physical extension, because it is its own individual substance of matter. In Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he puts all concepts of previous certainty into question, intentionally leaving the reader with skepticism towards the concept of knowledge and mental capacity at large. Further, he continues to contend that the mind is distinctly different than the body and can be innovated due to its ability to think, whereas the body is merely a tangible and measureable dimension with no greater abilities, such as thinking or experiencing emotion. Additionally, Descartes further describes the ideas held by Substance Dualists through detailing that under this theory of mind, all entities are…
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René Descartes (1596–1650) was a dualist and proposed that mind and body interact at the pineal gland. He hypothesized that the cerebrospinal fluid of the brain’s cavities contained spirits which flowed from the brain through the nerves to the muscles, provoking movement.…
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He states that one can understand the mind to exist separately from the body. The middle term of the argument, as noted in the major premise is the separate understanding of two things, and he presents the idea of mind and body as the minor term. Descartes devotes a larger share of the argument to defending the minor premise, perhaps because the idea of body and mind as separate substances is more controversial than a general notion of separate substances as distinct. He goes on to expound not only the idea that the mind and body are separate, but that the essence of the human being lies in its nature as a thinking thing. As thought is the essence of the human being, and the principle attribute of the mind is thought, the mind can therefore be seen as more fundamental to humans than the body. Descartes acknowledges that it is likely for a body to be joined to the mind, however he maintains that one can still conceive of both body and mind as separate substances. And as the essence of the body is extension rather than thought, it is fundamentally less relevant to a thinking…
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I see why Descartes thinks a body is dividable because he believes that the body had mass. So if I lose any mass such as an arm or a leg, I would still have a body. It may not be a whole body with two arms, two legs and so on. Descartes believe that even though I would lose an arm or leg nothing is taken away from the mind. Which I believe he is right. I have seen what individuals can do without say an arm, or no legs. Just because I lose a part of my body doesn’t make me less of a person. There’s still ways to achieve goals or dreams with the right mind set. The mind is able to send signals to the body to help the body achieve certain challenges throughout life. The mind can make a person do amazing things but the person has to believe it is possible in order to achieve goals or dreams. So I don’t think the mind and the brain is the same but they need each other in other to work.…
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Descartes is, perhaps, the philosopher that most people reference when discussing the mind-body problem. For Descartes, there are two substances: Mind and Matter. Each substance has a defining attribute. In the case of Mind, the defining attribute is Thought. In the case of Matter, the defining attribute is spatial Extension. It is important to note that for Descartes, substances can have nothing in common, otherwise they would not be fundamentally different things. The mind-body problem arises out of this view of substances, because if mind and body have nothing in common, then in what way can they be said to interact? This is known as the problem of interaction.…
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Among other things, Renee Descartes was an influential philosopher during the enlightenment era. This era, which is characterized by what, at the time, was controversial thinking is exactly what Descartes was known for. His "out of the box" thinking not only raised eyebrows, but it also brought a lot to the table. One of his most discussed ideas was that of substance dualism. In this theory, Descartes describes the mind an body as two separate substances. But to completely understand exactly what Descartes means by this, one of his other, more renowned theories must be explained first.…
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Epistemology is study of the nature of knowledge and how humans have come to believe certain ideas as true. In the 17th century, French philosopher, Rene Descartes, proposed a revolutionary explanation of the notion that there is a separate, yet causal relationship between the mind and the body. Descartes created the school of philosophical thought known as substance dualism in which he methodologically elucidates his argument that there are only two fundamental entities in the world, that being mental and physical things. In his philosophical treatise, Meditations, Descartes challenges the Monist materialistic belief that the world is only composed of physical matter by inverting this preexisting conception through a reductionist approach. On his quest for knowledge and truth, he argues that the mind and the body dichotomy involves two separate substances that have the power to influence one another. Since the body exists in the physical, material world, it has the ability to influence the mind through experiences that are conceived by sensory perceptions. Through these sensory experiences and perceptions, the mind formulates beliefs and thoughts, whereby it influences the body to react and behave in certain ways through speech and action. While Descartes claims that there is a real distinction between the mind and the body, he also believes that the two interact in a causal relationship, where the mind is better known than the body.…
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By "thing," Descartes could simply be using the word as we do today, as an ambiguous throwaway word when we don't want to be more specific. More likely, though, he is using it to mean substance, the fundamental and indivisible elements of Cartesian ontology. In this ontology, there are extended things (bodies) and thinking things (minds), and Descartes is here asserting that we are minds rather than bodies. Of course, "thinking" is also highly questionable. Does Descartes mean only the intellection and understanding that is characteristic of the Aristotelian conception of mind? Or does he also include sensory perception, imagination, willing, and so on? At the beginning of the Second Meditation, the Meditator has cast sensory perception and so on into doubt, but by the end of the Second Meditation, sensing, imagining, willing, and so on are included as attributes of the mind. This question is further explored in the commentary on the next…
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Moreover, according to Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy states “I think, therefore I am”. Descartes believed that finding one indubitable truth, together with a means for employing it, will be the foundation of a true philosophical system. Descartes' argument was that whatever doubt I may have, I cannot doubt that I am doubting - that I exist as doubting and, in general, thinking, and even an evil genius cannot trick me into thinking that I am doubting. Descartes defined the human mind as existing because it can think, and distinguished that the mind and the body are separate entities.…
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In today’s society there are many people living in poverty. All across America there are different projects and reservations where the less fortunate reside. Statistics show that mostly minorities live in these different locations. Native Americans and African Americans are two of the more popular races living in these places. The group suffering the most in these situations is the youth. Although both Native American and African American children living on a reservation or in the projects experience a terrible community, have little to no faith, and a broken family structure, African American youth living in the projects have it worse than Native American children living on a reservation.…
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In Descartes’ Dualism, the body is considered to be a material substance, and the mind is considered to be an immaterial one. He suggests that although these two things combine to make a human being, but these two parts exist in two separate worlds. The body exists in the physical world, where all the objects that we can see and touch exist. While the mind exists…
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trough associations made by a physician called Avicenna. He had theory’s and treatments on how the health of the mind attributed to the health of the body and conducted his treatment of patients in accordance with his theory’s. Biological Psychology emerged as a scientific discipline much later in the eighteenth and nineteenth century’s. They began mainly, as much of psychology does, in theory’s that were developed through philosophy. There were attempt to define the association of the mind and body trough theory’s such as Dualism. Dualism is a family of views about the relationship between the mind and physical matter. Rene Descartes expressed his ideas about Dualism in his 1641 publication of Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes can be attributed with being the first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self awareness and to distinguish this from the brain. Descartes proposed that a mid lined unpaired structure on the brain was the point of contact between mind and body. He also proved his theory’s by giving examples that were easy to understand like the human control of bodily fluids, this could explain reflexes and other motor behaviors (New World,…
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The tone for much discussion, over the last 400 years, of the nature of mind and body was certainly set by Descartes. Cartesian dualism postulated an apparently unbridgeable gap between minds and bodies which drove some thinkers to materialism, others to idealism. 20th century thinkers have developed sophisticated versions of materialism, aided by recent discoveries about the nervous systems and the brain.…
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