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Example research essay topic: Mind And Body Clear And Distinct - 2,264 words

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Descartes Descartes relation of the mind and the body is circles around three topics: mind body dualism, proofs for the real distinction between mind and body, and two way causal interaction. Descartes in Meditation II concludes that he is in essence a thinking thing (res cogitates), and that it is possible that he exists without a body. He recognizes, however, that to conclude from this that his mind is really distinct from his body would be fallacious. The Stoic paradox of the masked man illustrates the fallacy. If a person sees their father, they will very likely recognize him. If the same person is then shown a masked man, they may doubt that this is their father.

Still, the masked man might be their father. So, to conclude that the father and the masked man are really distinct because one cannot doubt in one case but can in the other is clearly fallacious. The case is precisely the same for Descartes in relation to his mind and his body in Meditation II. Descartes does make some further progress in respect to this problem in Meditation II. Instead, he determines, as noted above, that the essence of body is to be flexible, movable and extended. Thus it turns out that the essence of mind and the essence of body are two different things.

Minds are in essence thinking about things, bodies are in essence space occupiers, movable and flexible. This is the basic doctrine of Cartesian dualism with respect to mind and body - bodies and minds are different kinds of entities. One motivation for this distinction is an interest in the Christian doctrine of immortality. Descartes originally intended the Meditation de Prima Philosophy to include a proof of the immortality of the soul. He does not entirely succeed in this, but perhaps takes some steps towards the achievement of such a goal. One of these steps involves proving that there is a real distinction between the mind and the body, i.

e. that the soul can exist independently of the body. From Meditation II Descartes takes the fact that the essences of mind and body are distinct. From Meditation III he takes the language of clear and distinct ideas, and the existence of God and from Gods omnipotence concludes that God could make distinct any two things which I clearly and distinctly perceive could be distinguished. Since the essence of mind and body are different and these ideas are clear and distinct, it follows that God could make them distinct. Descartes concludes that they are in fact distinct.

Supposing that minds and bodies really are distinct from one another, how do they relate to one another? Minds are thinking things which are not extended, bodies are extended and do not think. Descartes answer is that bodies in perception affect minds and that bodies are affected by minds in action. Thus, when one sees a tree, the tree is causing light rays to hit their eyes, this information is taken by the animal spirits up to the brain, and passed through the pineal gland to the mind where it is perceived as the idea of a tree. On the other hand, if one decides to lift my arm, my mind issues a command, which is passed through the pineal gland to the brain, and from the brain the animal spirits are animated in such a way that my arm raises. This is two way causal interaction.

It is two way because the mind causally effects the body in action, and the body causally effects the mind in perception. It is causal because the process is causal and not say logical or aesthetic or some other kind of relationship. It is interaction because it is one kind of entity acting on another, that is minds on bodies or bodies on minds. How can a mind, which is immaterial, cause any kind of change in a body at all?

How can a body, which is material and occupies space, affect something, which is immaterial and does not occupy space? It is possible to evade some of these difficulties in various ways. However, for Descartes the difficulties are compounded by Descartes heirloom theory of causality, which plays a crucial role in Descartes proof for the existence of God. This theory holds that the effect inherits something from the cause. This explains the connection between cause and effect. Given the real distinction, however, it appears that there is nothing, which can play this role for minds and bodies - what do they have in common?

At the outset of the Third Meditation, Descartes tried to use this first truth as the paradigm for his general account of the possibilities for achieving human knowledge. In the cogito, awareness of myself, of thinking, and of existence are somehow combined in such a way as to result in an intuitive grasp of a truth that cannot be doubted. Perhaps we can find in other cases the same grounds for indubitable truth. But what is it? The answer lies in Descartes theory of ideas.

Considered formally, as the content of my thinking activity, the ideas involved in the cogito are unusually clear and distinct. (Med. III) But ideas may also be considered objectively, as the mental representatives of things that really exist. According to a representative realist like Descartes, then, the connections among our ideas yield truth only when they correspond to the way the world really is. But it is not obvious that our clear and distinct ideas do correspond to the reality of things, since we suppose that there may be an omnipotent deceiver. In some measure, the reliability of our ideas may depend on the source from which they are derived. Descartes held that there are only three possibilities: all of our ideas are either adventitious (entering the mind from the outside world) or factitious (manufactured by the mind itself) or innate (inscribed on the mind by god). (Med.

III) The Sixth Meditation contains two arguments in defence of Cartesian dualism: First, since the mind and the body can each be conceived clearly and distinctly apart from each other. It follows that god could cause either to exist independently of the other, and this satisfies the traditional criteria for a metaphysical real distinction. (Med. VI) Second, the essence of body as a geometrically defined region of space includes the possibility of its infinite divisibility, but the mind, despite the variety of its many faculties and operations, must be conceived as a single, unitary, indivisible being; since incompatible properties cannot inhere in any one substance, the mind and body are perfectly distinct. (Med. VI) This radical separation of mind and body makes it difficult to account for the apparent interaction of the two in my own case.

In ordinary experience, it surely seems that the volitions of my mind can cause physical movements in my body and that the physical states of my body can produce effects on my mental operations. But on Descartes view, there can be no substantial connection between the two, nor did he believe it appropriate to think of the mind as residing in the body as a pilot resides within a ship. The argument from these three results is presented in a single paragraph, and precedes the proof of the existence of material things. This reflects Descartes belief that we can know that mind and body are distinct substances, capable of separate existence, before we know whether any corporeal thing actually exists - because we know that the nature of body is extension. This argument has been called the Conceivability or Epistemological argument. Descartes argues that the mind and the body are completely different because the former is indivisible, while the latter is divisible. ) The claim that mind and body are really distinct has a technical meaning for Descartes.

Descartes moves from the fact that he has a clear and distinct idea of himself (i. e. a mind) as simply a thinking, non-extended thing and a distinct idea of body as simply an extended, non-thinking thing to the claim that mind can exist apart from body (and vice versa). But there is a worry about this move.

According to Descartes, he can separate mind and body (or thinking and extension) in his thought. But why does that show that mind and body (or thinking and extension) are capable of separate existence in reality? Suppose one looks out of the window and see a tree, but not its roots, which are buried in the earth. One may form the idea of a tree without roots; but it would be rash to conclude from this that a tree can exist without roots. Similarly, one may look within his / her mind and be ware of the existence of thought, but unaware of the existence of body. If one then forms an idea of a thinking thing without material properties (extension), surely it would also be rash to conclude that mind can exist without body.

The basic worry is that Descartes is moving too swiftly from a premise about his ideas, or what he is aware of, or can conceive, to a conclusion about things, or how things are, or what is possible. It is possible that all knowledge of external objects, including my body, could be false as the result of the actions of an evil demon. It is not, however, possible that I could be deceived about my existence or my nature as a thinking thing. Therefore, our mind is much more clearly and distinctly known to us than our body. Descartes still has no knowledge of anything outside of his mind. He still has to make the crucial leap to the existence of an object outside of his mind.

He must do this, however, strictly on the basis of the contents of his own mind. It is the idea of God that he finds in his mind that allows him to make this leap, and which forms the basis for his knowledge of all other external objects. Each of these arguments depends on Leibniz's law, which says: Leibniz's law: If two things are the same thing, they must share all the same properties. Descartes shows two ways in which mind and body seem to have different properties, and how, hence, they must be different things. Even though Descartes ideas do make sense in many ways, there are several problems with his radical split between the mind and the body. For example, if mind and body are radically different, it is hard to see how they can interact with each other.

In particular, it is hard to see how an unexpended substance can interact with an extended one. Yet mind and body do seem to interact in both directions: 1. The mind affects the body: This seems to happen whenever we act. The mind decides to do something and the body does it. 2.

The body affects the mind: a. In sense perception, our sense organs seem to affect and produce images in our mind. b. Damage to our brain or the influence of drugs on our body often affects our mind. How plausible is it that propositions concerning your own mental states are evident to you?

If self-deception is possible, then that is relevant to the evidence issue too. There may be truths about ones mental life about which one is not aware. Let S be the proposition I believe he is having an affair. In this example, S is the case; but she does not believe that S.

Someone has a belief of which she / he is not aware. S is not evident. More generally, if there are unconscious mental processes, as many (most famously Freud) have argued, does that undermine Descartes view? Is it possible to make mistakes about our own beliefs and desires? I might falsely believe that I like the taste of beer, when really I hate it, but pretend to everyone including myself that I like it, so I can be one of the crowd at the pub. Is that a possibility?

Many people, and many philosophers, think that self-deception is possible. For example, if someone 'turns a blind eye' to the lipstick on her husband's collar, she somehow pretends to herself that he is faithful. In such a case she will have beliefs about her mental states that are not incorrigible: she may believe that she believes he is faithful; but in fact she believes he might not be. Let P be the proposition I believe he is faithful.

In this example, she believes that P; but in fact not-P is the case. She is wrong about what she believes: P is not incorrigible. In the 5 th Meditation, Descartes promises in the title that he will tell us the essence of material things. He asks whether any certainty can be achieved regarding material objects (63), and the certainties he proceeds to discover in this Meditation concern geometry. He has a distinct idea of continuous quantity: something extended in space that can be measured in length, breadth, depth. He can clearly imagine various sizes, shapes, positions and local motions.

All of these ideas of extension are amenable to mathematical treatment. Various properties can be deduced from the concepts of these various shapes. Descartes is an extremely interesting philosopher in all respects. Whether he is write or wrong in his ideas is up to every person to make his / her own judgment, but is it un doubtful that knowing Descartes ideas does give much food for the brain.


Free research essays on topics related to: pineal gland, cartesian dualism, mind and body, clear and distinct, meditation descartes

Research essay sample on Mind And Body Clear And Distinct

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