Locke: Mind And Body Comparison
Descartes and Locke: Mind and Body Comparison
John Locke and Rene Descartes were both early philosophers of the seventeenth century. Descartes and Locke tried to find answers in regarding the mind and body. Is in possible for the mind and body to be two different thing? Locke and Decartes provide two different answers to this fundamental question.. In considering the similarities and difference between the philosophies of Locke and Descartes, I think it’s important in considering the differences in their theories with the mind and body.
Rene Descartes believes knowledge depends on absolute certainty. Since perception is unreliable, indubitable knowledge cannot come from the outside world via the senses (Descartes, 76). Descartes believes
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In second Meditation, Descartes asserts that he is a “thinking thing” (Descartes, 82). He believes a thing that “thinks, doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines and has sensory perceptions” (Descartes, 83). Not only does Descartes consider the self to be a thinking thing but he believes that is his essence (Descartes, 114). Descartes make an important distinction between the mind and body. He believes that there is a link between the soul and body which sensations are transferred and that this link allows one to identify body as one own. He states, “I am not merely present in my body as a sailor is present in a ship, but that I am very closely joined, and, as it were, intermingled with it, so that I and the body form a unit” (Descartes, 116). This concludes that Descartes thinks one self refers to the soul or the mind alone, not the body. He states,” It is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it” (Descates, 115). Mostly because you can imagine my mind without my body Like Descartes, John Locke makes a distinction between the body. Locke believes the soul and the body are separate, but related. Also like Descartes, he think of one self as a thing that thinks. But he disagrees with Descartes that his “essence consists solely in the fact that he is thinking things” (Descates, 114). Locke is famous for is comparing one
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560 Words | 3 Pages4 Each question lead to harder questions, it would take more time than Descartes can spare Focus on the beliefs that naturally came to the mind: Body 4 Face, hands, arms 4 Whole structure of body parts Soul 4 Eat, drink, move 4 Sense-persception and thinking Soul and Body Soul Thin and filmy Like a wind or fire or ether 4 Flowing or spreading in the solid parts Body Definite shape and position Can occupy a “region of space” to avoid other body Senses: Perceived by touch, sight, hearing, taste or smell Movement Reaction: can’t start up by itself unless moved by other things bump into it “Human Ones”: could initiate movements & can be able to sense and think One needs a body to perceive: perceive things through thinking Thinking Man Can’t be separated from “I” Stop THINKING, Stop EXISTING A thing that THINKS, therefore EXIST: Doubts almost everything Understands some things Affirms that “I” exist and think Denies everything else Wants to know more Refuses to be deceived Imagines many things involuntarily Aware of others through the senses “I”: Thinking thing I doubt, I understand : want is obvious
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