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).…
Materialism by definition is the thought “brain events cause mental events and some mental events cause brain events” in a measurable and quantifiable fashion. Thomas Hobbes famously stated in his book Leviathan that “I can explain all…
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…
Substance dualism is a never ending argument in the Philosophy world as it’s been going on for decades. It is the view that the universe contains two important types of entity which is mental and material. The structure of this paper is that four main argument leads to one conclusion. Firstly, I’ll argue about Descartes’s ‘separability argument’ which stands as the definition of Substance Dualism. Secondly, I’ll argue that mental and physical have different and perhaps irreconcilable properties. An argument is not complete without a counter argument which in this case the “pairing” problem that exists in Descartes theory is highlighted and where is the interaction of material and immaterial takes place in our body is argued. Finally, the reply for the counter argument comes in a form of defense and positive argument in favors substance dualism and the weakness with the objection.…
Among Descartes’ many notable arguments, in the Sixth Meditation he makes a case for the real distinction between mind and body. This idea that mind and body are distinct was not common during Descartes’ time and conflicted directly with the popularly accepted scholastic view of the human being as a hylomorphic substance. The argument of the Sixth Meditation draws on much of Descartes’ own work concerning substance, attributes and distinction. In this paper, I will argue that he arrives at the conclusion that mind and body are in fact distinct by a categorical syllogism, focusing primarily on defending the minor premise that mind and body can be conceived as separate.…
The views of the Australian materialists on the identification of the mind and the body, simply stated, are that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain. Henceforth these philosophers (for the purpose of this article I will be referring in particular to Smart and Armstrong’s views on the matter) assume the position that all processes of the mind and experiences are due to physical reactions occurring in the brain and that these physical processes can account for the mental states that one may encounter. Smart’s takes a Materialist stance regarding the identification of the mind and body, and a more scientific one at that, believing that everything…
Rene Descartes believes that the mind and body is different things and that the body is dividable but the mind is not dividable. I’m not sure what I believe, but I think I believe at least for now that the mind and body is two different things. I will explore why Descartes thinks you can divide a body and why he thinks a mind is not dividable. As well as what Descartes response should be to Armstrong’s criticism. Was Descartes right or not? I think this is all up to the interpretation of Descartes Divisibility. There is a number of ways this may be interpreted.…
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.…
In order to truly understand Descartes’ argument of substance dualism, it is important to understand the methodological, reductionist approach that he employs to build his theory. In the First Meditation, Descartes sets the basis for his ontological search for truth by rejecting all of his previous beliefs, experiences, and memories in order to begin from a clean, uninfluenced position. He says, “I have no senses. Body, shape, extension,…
The first argument I put forward to support dualism is; the brain and mind of human beings are different from each other. They both have unique properties and distinctive roles in human beings. The brain has definable characteristics that can be observed and analysed (Robinson, 2012, p.2). For example the activity of the brain when sleeping is examinable on electroencephalograms (Marieb & Hoehn, 2013, p.452). A magnetic resonance imaging reveals the location of different functions of the brain (Marieb & Hoehn, 2013, p.432¬). When dissected, the brain’s physical properties, such as size, shape and colour can be analysed (Robinson, 2012, p.2). On the other hand the mind is not discernible to science, it does not have physical properties like the brain. The mind is a mental awareness of the interactions occurring within and around the human body (Robinson, 2012, p.7). It observes and moderates our thoughts, emotions and reactions (Robinson, 2012, p.2). The mind is the human body’s mental state. It is private and only observable to other humans, by that human’s behaviour, actions and voiced output…
Dualism and monism is a famous philosophy topic from ancient to now. The word "Dualism" means that our physical and our mental are independent. And our body and our mind cannot be the same. It is because of mind and body is two separate substances. In the contract, the "monism" means that both of the physical and mental are combined being one. And our mind and body are indivisible and are each influenced by the other. The monism and dualism individually has its strengths and weaknesses.…
In my essay, I am going to argue for Descartes mind-body dualism against Darwin’s monism. I believe that the mind and body are two separate entities and that human life is not simply the result random mutations that took place throughout the past two billion years or so. I am not going to attempt to disprove science; I can’t do that. I am however, going to try to give specific examples on the origin of existence and the nature of reality.…
Eliminative Materialism is a theory that deems that the common sense understanding of the mind is wrong. It also poses that one day neurosciences will reveal that mental states do not refer to anything real. In fact, the concept of mental states will eventually be eliminated by neuroscience. In the past, mental states were explained by what is called folk psychology. Churchland argues that folk psychology will gradually be replaced as neuroscience grows more advanced and explains more. The problems that eliminative materialist see with folk psychology is that it often excludes or is mistaken about mental phenomenon that can now, currently, be explained by neuroscience. Neuroscience has been able to explain phenomenon such as dreaming, consciousness, and memory. Due to the fact that there have been no further developments in folk psychology, it is considered a stagnant theory. Folk psychology is widely discredited mainly because it is outdated and such things as neuroscience were developed. In essence, eliminative materialism calls for elimination of the mind all together. One of the points it argues is the widespread failures of the mind. It states that despite centuries of studies, there are still many concepts that modern psychology can’t explain or understand. Also there have been similar examples from history of folk psychology and other disproven theories. One example is ancient people’s theory of the movement of stars, which was later disproven. Another argument of Churchland’s is that folk psychology is unlikely to have a neat reduction, and will most likely not have a neat development. This is where Churchland disagrees with Carruthers.…
Philosophers have been debating for centuries the relationship between the mind and the body and whether they are separate entities, or if they are one. This is known as the mind/body problem. If the mind being our consciousness and the body being our brain is separate parts, do they relate to each other or work together? If they are one, do they depend on each other? The idea that the mind and body are one is called monism. The idea that the mind and body are separate is called dualism (Newall, 2005).…
At first, Descartes discarded the greater part of his current hypotheses and convictions keeping in mind the end goal to isolate just the certainties that he was sure of. In the procedure, he found that he could question whether he had a body however he was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had a psyche. Descartes trusted that the psyche and body were two unique things. The psyche, as indicated by Descartes, was a "reasoning thing" and an immaterial substance, which was the pith of him that could question, trust, trust, and think. So, Descartes contends, the brain, a reasoning thing, can exist separated from the body, in this way the brain is a substance unmistakable from the body, whose quintessence is the idea. To many individuals Descartes dualism might be evident when we attempt to clarify that physical normal for the human body, which the psyche does not have. Likewise, if individual turns out to be physically sick, could his mind remind…