Rene Descartes Mind And Body Essay
What is the relationship between mind and body? Or what is the relationship between mental properties and physical properties? Is the mind and body two separate substances? Today I will be critically discussing Descartes notion of immaterialism. What do I mean by immaterialism? The definition of immaterialism is the belief that matter has no objective existence.
Rene Descartes is a 17th century French philosopher, who was driven by his desire to find an absolute certainty on which to base the search for knowledge, he claimed to have discovered one fact beyond doubt; that he is a thinking thing. Beginning with his famous words, “I think, therefore I am”. He attempts to establish the mind as a separate substance from the body. But before Descartes there was Plato, who was the first immaterialist. He defended the view that the human mind exists and is completely immaterial. Plato also believed that the mind is separate from the body and can also exist without …show more content…
My mind can exist separate from anything physical
2. No physical part of me can exist separate from anything physical
3. Therefore, by Leibniz’s law, my mind isn’t a physical part of me
Disembodied existence is quite literally the idea that we are able to exist in some form without our bodies. However, this is greatly opposed by those who believe in materialism, or monism, the belief that we as humans exist as a single unit body and mind which cannot be separated. Do we have to have physical bodies to exist? Is it even possible for us to survive without a physical body? The answer I believe is yes, I mean if we can imagine a situation where we could exist without a body and if we can imagine it then it is a coherent concept.
Conclusion
So how can I arrive at a definition so that the two cannot be confused? Simple, Descartes claims that every material thing is defined by having extension, so it occupies space. Thus the essence of mind is thought, while the essence of body is
Rene Descartes is a 17th century French philosopher, who was driven by his desire to find an absolute certainty on which to base the search for knowledge, he claimed to have discovered one fact beyond doubt; that he is a thinking thing. Beginning with his famous words, “I think, therefore I am”. He attempts to establish the mind as a separate substance from the body. But before Descartes there was Plato, who was the first immaterialist. He defended the view that the human mind exists and is completely immaterial. Plato also believed that the mind is separate from the body and can also exist without …show more content…
My mind can exist separate from anything physical
2. No physical part of me can exist separate from anything physical
3. Therefore, by Leibniz’s law, my mind isn’t a physical part of me
Disembodied existence is quite literally the idea that we are able to exist in some form without our bodies. However, this is greatly opposed by those who believe in materialism, or monism, the belief that we as humans exist as a single unit body and mind which cannot be separated. Do we have to have physical bodies to exist? Is it even possible for us to survive without a physical body? The answer I believe is yes, I mean if we can imagine a situation where we could exist without a body and if we can imagine it then it is a coherent concept.
Conclusion
So how can I arrive at a definition so that the two cannot be confused? Simple, Descartes claims that every material thing is defined by having extension, so it occupies space. Thus the essence of mind is thought, while the essence of body is