ipl-logo

Comparing Descartes Meditations: Dualism Of The Mind And Body

1139 Words5 Pages

The philosopher Descartes speaks on the entities dear to any person, the mind and body. In the Meditations, speaks about the dualism of the mind and body and their properties. Descartes believes with the will of God something as the body and mind that are joined together have the possibility of existing separately. As stated by Descartes, “I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in so far as I am simply a thinking, non-extended thing; and on the other hand, I have a distinct idea of body, in so far as this is simply an extended, non-thinking thing.” He follows this statement up with “And accordingly, it is certain that I am really distinct from my body and can exist without it. This ideal is also known as a real distinction.
He does admit …show more content…

The mind can tell the body to walk, sit down, etc. In order for there to be some sort of influence present, there must be as well contact. It is impossible to say that the body that has sensory perception is influenced by a non-extended object. For example, if a brain was taken out someone’s body when just waking up would the person have the intellect force to go brush their teeth? Another point is, if the mind is in the body it would be able to also surpass all the pain and struggles the body goes through but just through an intellectual understanding. It might not feel the pain, but it mentally understands the body is going through some. Descartes states, “why should that curious tugging in the stomach which I call hunger tell me that I should eat, or a dryness of the throat tell me to drink… I was not able to give any explanation of all of this, except that nature taught me so.” The nature of the body is that the mind sends sensations and signal to the body for what it needs and wants, so after all it is still the mind in control playing on the body. Perhaps when Descartes speaks on power, he speaks on the advantage of the mind, but the mind is also used by the body. This will be seen in several scenarios. For example, he brings up the scenario of a foot that is hurt. With the nerves being connected he states, “the brain as occurs when the foot is hurt, and so it will necessarily come about that

Show More
Related

Nancy Mairs 'Empathy Exams And On Being A Cripple'

897 Words | 4 Pages

In “The Empathy Exam,” Leslie Jamison. She wrote about one of a psychologist’s test and the test tells that imagining pain could affect our body. The author writes, “Jean Decety, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, use fMRI scans to measure what happens when someone’s brain responds to another person’s pain. He shows test subjects images of painful situations (hand caught in scissors, foot under door) and compares these scans to what a brain looks like when its body is actually in pain. Decety has found that imagining the pain of others activates the same three areas (prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, and anterior singulate) as experiencing pain itself” (26-27).

Read More

Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy: An Analysis

172 Words | 1 Pages

Therefore, Descartes argues that the mind and the body must be two logically distinct

Read More

How Did Rene Descartes Belief That Happen To Be True

913 Words | 4 Pages

In the First Meditation, Descartes tells us how many beliefs that he believed they were true, happen to be false as the time passed. For this reason, Descartes thought himself that one day he is going to sit down and think through all his beliefs, separate the false from the truth ones. From the truth beliefs, see if I have anything in doubt about them, and if so, I am just going to throw them out of the window as a whole, until I will find one thing, that simply I have no doubt about, Descartes says. Thinking of existence, he takes as an example his own body, in the dream argument and asks how many times we dream about real things, and they are so real so I may find myself sitting in a very particular place, wearing the same as in real life that I have had no doubt that the dream was the actual real life of mine.

Read More

Descartes Sixth Meditation Analysis

1919 Words | 8 Pages

In the sixth meditation, Descartes postulates that there exists a fundamental difference in the natures of both mind and body which necessitates that they be considered as separate and distinct entities, rather than one stemming from the other or vice versa. This essay will endeavour to provide a critical objection to Descartes’ conception of the nature of mind and body and will then further commit to elucidating a suitably Cartesian-esque response to the same objection. (Descartes,1641) In the sixth meditation Descartes approaches this point of dualism between mind and matter, which would become a famous axiom in his body of philosophical work, in numerous ways. To wit Descartes postulates that he has clear and distinct perceptions of both

Read More

Descartes Second Meditation Rhetorical Analysis

723 Words | 3 Pages

He reasons that the idea of the body is the ideas of something extended like shape and size. This predicts the mind and body dualism, and the regulation of essential and supplementary qualities. Descartes found the essence of the mind which is to think; and the embodiment of matter, which is to be expanded. He also infers that despite his underlying beliefs, the psyche is a far superior knower than the body and that it is more realistic than the material world. Descartes infers that he must know his mind more than anything.

Read More

Essay On Dualism And Monism

1457 Words | 6 Pages

What is the Mind? Introduction To try and explore the ‘mind’ it is necessary to examine if the mind and the brain are separate or if the mind and body are distinct from one another? Is the mind and body separate substance or elements of the same substance? Is consciousness the result of the mechanisms of the brain, wholly separate from the brain or inextricably linked?

Read More

Essay On Predicate Dualism

1009 Words | 5 Pages

An example of what we believe to be a true type redefined outside psychology if we consider the mere only of water, where we know that water is H2O: something is water if and only if it is H2O. If we had replaced the word ‘water’ by ‘H2O’, it is justifiable to tell that he could be able to approach same information. But the terms in other sciences are not redefinable in this way. Not every cyclone or every viral disease has the same

Read More

Resonance Theory In Sheldrake's Science Set Free

2357 Words | 10 Pages

This is a theory that has evidence of this occurring in people. This isn’t a material inheritance. You don’t get anything physical from this. It’s not a “memory” in people that’s stored in the brain, it’s a phenomenon that somehow passes down this “memory” to be inherited by others in similar situations. The mind is nothing physical, the mind is beyond the brain.

Read More

Aristotle Dualism Essay

526 Words | 3 Pages

He argues that the body and soul are two elements that have the same underlying substance. He maintains that a person’s soul is the same as his nature of body; however, he argues that the mind differed from other parts of the body as it lacked a physical feature. In this case, he maintains that the intellect lacks a physical form, and this allows it to receive every form. It allows a person to think about anything, including the material object. In this case, he argues that if the intellect were in a material form, it could be sensitive to only some physical objects.

Read More

What Is Spinoza's View Of Substance Dualism

1744 Words | 7 Pages

But may believe even Descartes isn’t exactly clear on the inner working of the relationship (Robinson, Howard). Spinoza’s substance monism cleverly dissolves this issue by labeling mind (thought) and body (extension) as attributes to a common and singular substance. Other substance pluralist philosophies are also denied when we truly capture the infinite extent of

Read More

The Dualist Relationship Between The Mind And Body

785 Words | 4 Pages

To begin with, Dualism is the philosophical doctrine, first introduced by Rene Descartes, that the Mind and Body are two distinct separate entities. Rene Descartes believed that the Mind and Body were separate entities that were not only independent from one another, but that both were composed of dissimilar elements. Descartes explains that the body, and all its physiological attributes, are composed of “Physical” matter, and as such, dwells in the material realm and abides the laws of Physics or the laws of nature. Conversely, the Mind and all its attributes, thoughts, emotions and qualia, are composed of “Spiritual” matter, and as such, dwells in the immaterial realm and does not abide to the laws of physics or nature.

Read More

Descartes Mind Body Dualism Summary

1104 Words | 5 Pages

In his philosophical thesis, of the ‘Mind-Body dualism’ Rene Descartes argues that the mind and the body are really distinct, one of the most deepest and long lasting legacies. Perhaps the strongest argument that Descartes gives for his claim is that the non extended thinking thing like the Mind cannot exist without the extended non thinking thing like the Body. Since they both are substances, and are completely different from each other. This paper will present his thesis in detail and also how his claim is critiqued by two of his successors concluding with a personal stand.

Read More

Plato's Dualism Experiment

1331 Words | 6 Pages

After the fake hand has been introduced, the mind believes it to be its body and begins to feel with the rubber hand, (6). When the scientist strikes the fake hand with a rubber hammer, (6), we see the test subject react with pain even though there is no physical reason for this. If the mind and the body truly were one, then we shouldn’t see this discrepancy between them. If they were truly one then they should be able to coordinate thoughts, and feelings. A fake hand shouldn’t invoke reactions of pain, as it should recognize the hand as either a part of itself or not.

Read More

What Is Descartes Idea Of Methodic Doubt

1449 Words | 6 Pages

Hence the Cartesian dualism theological view allows our existence after the bodies death. Descartes shows us it reaffirms the dominance of our own souls over our bodies. As a true believer Descartes had found a way to save his own faith from the temptations of materialistic science. And as a scientist he has freed the church from any interference into his progress and since his discoveries are that of the body and how they have no real bearing on our

Read More

The Conscious Mind: The Subconscious Mind

860 Words | 4 Pages

What is the mind? Obviously it's got to do with thought, so it's kind of related to the brain. And the brain's pretty important, the boss of your body, sending signals to breathe, pump the heart, move the muscles, and function. Here's how the mind body connection works: The Conscious Mind This is the part that thinks.

Read More

More about Comparing Descartes Meditations: Dualism Of The Mind And Body

Related Topics

Open Document