Mind or Body Philosophy Paper Essay Example
Alexandra Williams
Philosophy 1100
The Mind and/or Body Argument For thousands of years philosophers have acknowledged a boundary between or physical selves and our mental selves. However with the passing of time and the advancements of science whether we are governed by our minds or just our bodies has been debated more and more. There are a long line of ancient thinkers who contemplated the mind-body relationship issue starting with Plato and Aristotle (Waller, 2011). Without knowing what we are run by we can never truly reach our full potential because we may be limited by our physical or mental selves. The mind or body argument consists of arguments for the existence of only the mind, the body, and a combination of the two. Many philosophers put faith in the idea that our bodies are separate entities than our minds. Because they are absolutely certain that we do think they feel they can be sure that we are our minds. Bodies just happen to be our anchors and we can surely live without them. Rene Descartes once stated “I exist as a thinking thing. What then is it that I am? A thinking thing. What is a thinking thing? Is it a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, abstains from willing, that also can be aware of images and sensations?… It is certain that I am truly distinct from my body, and I can exist without it.” (Dr. Bob Zunjic, University of Rhode Island). The idea of our existence truly being only our minds we could very well leave our own bodies and without needing to feed our bodies or be weighed down by the frailty of them who knows how long we could live or how much we could learn? While materialist believe that everything is made of matter Aristotle had an argument against this “if the intellect were material then it could not receive all of the forms. If the intellect were a specific material organ (or part of one) then it would be restricted to receiving only certain kinds of information, as the eye is restricted to
Philosophy 1100
The Mind and/or Body Argument For thousands of years philosophers have acknowledged a boundary between or physical selves and our mental selves. However with the passing of time and the advancements of science whether we are governed by our minds or just our bodies has been debated more and more. There are a long line of ancient thinkers who contemplated the mind-body relationship issue starting with Plato and Aristotle (Waller, 2011). Without knowing what we are run by we can never truly reach our full potential because we may be limited by our physical or mental selves. The mind or body argument consists of arguments for the existence of only the mind, the body, and a combination of the two. Many philosophers put faith in the idea that our bodies are separate entities than our minds. Because they are absolutely certain that we do think they feel they can be sure that we are our minds. Bodies just happen to be our anchors and we can surely live without them. Rene Descartes once stated “I exist as a thinking thing. What then is it that I am? A thinking thing. What is a thinking thing? Is it a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, abstains from willing, that also can be aware of images and sensations?… It is certain that I am truly distinct from my body, and I can exist without it.” (Dr. Bob Zunjic, University of Rhode Island). The idea of our existence truly being only our minds we could very well leave our own bodies and without needing to feed our bodies or be weighed down by the frailty of them who knows how long we could live or how much we could learn? While materialist believe that everything is made of matter Aristotle had an argument against this “if the intellect were material then it could not receive all of the forms. If the intellect were a specific material organ (or part of one) then it would be restricted to receiving only certain kinds of information, as the eye is restricted to