Descartes Philosophy on the Significance of the Body to the Mind

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Descartes’ Philosophy on the Significance of the Body to the Mind

Mind-body problem is the nature of association between the soul and the consciousness. It is mainly addressed by Rene Descartes who was a great French philosopher and mathematician in the 17th century. In philosophy, mind-body problem studies the relationship between matter and the mind. His views about mind and body results in Cartesian dualism, a believe that sensory organs are the ones which pass inputs to the epiphysis in the brain and then to the immaterial spirit. He also believed that the body is controlled by the mind through the pineal gland which is the principal organ where all thoughts are formed. Due to Cartesian dualism, different styles have emerged most being dualist and monist. Dualism ensures a rigid differentiation exist between the two organs (body-mind). Monism on the other hand measures the uniformity body and mind. Monism exists in three forms that is physicalism, idealism and neutral monism. Physicalism states that the mind is made up of matter arranged organized in a structured format while idealism holds that the existence of matter is an illusion that only exists in our thoughts. In neutral monism, matter and the soul are only unique essence that is identical to none of these two organs.

Descartes further asserts that the spirit and matter are distinct kinds of substance. He categorizes minds as unintended, thinking and feeling substances while bodies as extended substances incapable of feeling or thought. Substance dualism for example holds that mind/soul is made from uncommon type of substance which is not governed by either law of physics. On the other hand, property dualism entails that thou laws of physics are valid universally, therefore not fit in explaining the mind. However, it is difficult to identify how they could causally interact if they are radically different kinds of substance as argued in Princess Elizabeth’s letter.

Mind-body interaction plays a critical role in pretheoretic conception of agency since human soul can be able to determine the movement of animal spirits in the body in order to do voluntary acts being a conscious substance. Mental causation also aids in the formulations of the dualism relationship between matter and spirit/mind. Psychological explanation further defines the intelligibility of mental causation whereby if ones beliefs and desires are causally isolated from his or her bodily behavior, then what goes on his or her mind could not explain what he or she does. As a result, moral responsibility will be noticed if psychological explanation goes through hence leading to a satisfactory solution to the problem of mental causation.

On the other hand, Leibniz being a rationalist philosopher was also committed in his two theses about mind body perception.

Firstly, he argued that the spirit/soul has specific innate ideas. Secondly, he believed as well in the sufficient reason theory whereby everything has a reason for its cons and pro. Due to his principle having huge metaphysical consequences, it led him to state that the existence of the world is explained by the theological principles of God. Leibniz claims of reason therefore had some consequences about the metaphysics and nature that deals with fundamental questions on the existence of casual existence relationship between our thoughts and physical nature. He advanced the theory of pre-established harmony in order to respond to the body-mind nature of association. The theory stated no interaction between substances whereby the mind proceeded and unfolded respective to its own laws. Moreover, the body moved irrespective of the governing principles with such movement being in a perfect harmony state. He believed that there are simple substances called monads which are mind-like beings with forces that man all phenomena. As a result, space and time aid in cradle of the bodily phenomena since simple substances man matter and motion philosophy.

Szasz focuses on in the body-mind differential principles. He views the body and mind as separate concepts representing different types of phenomena. In his argument, both the soul and the mortal body cannot take the same direction, for instance sickness, as the mind is just but a metaphoric creature. Mind and body are therefore not only separated but two distinct object that function independently and responding differently to environmental variables. He further points out that from the ego’s point of view; the mind is part of the body. Mind and body are inseparable and distinguishable by double aspectism. There is a sort of separate mind and body since experimental and cognitive aspects can be differentiated from physical aspects. Physical brain constitutes the mind. The brain forms a critical body part which is a physical attribute of epiphenomenalism. The physical body affects the mind but the mind has no influence on matter/body. For instance, had the body been a TV, the mind would picture when the TV is switched on/off. Hence, this only affects the mind in picturing being a TV and the body. Therefore, any mental event has no influence on the activity of the brain.

Consequently, the body-mind relationship can be seen through physicalism, substance dualism and dual aspect theory. Materialism is the perception that the spirit and the soul have a link with matter and can be reduced to matter. Substance dualism explains mind and body as distinct substances which are unique whereby mind is un-extended and body extended. Using Nagel’s perception, mental properties cannot be reduced to physical properties pertaining dual aspect theory but they are two different ways of looking at the same thing. Dualism and mutualism of the mind has been in existence since the times of Plato and Aristotle. Dualism has been the driving force for the existence of the mind and body problem. Perception of the soul has influence over the body is beneficial since the body can heal whereas the mind expedites recovery. In our everyday activities, the mind frequently displays wonders of thought, memory, logic and creativity. It therefore has power to do great things.

Mind and body affect the human interaction as well. During interaction, both the body and mind have influence over each other because they are both involved in the interaction. According to Descartes, it is the space extension that makes us physical creatures and our ability to think is what constitutes our mental being. His words Cogito Ergo Sum implied to mean “I think, therefore I am” creates a problem since the mind exists a separately from the body with no physical association. Occasionalism explains the relation of mind and body. In many occasions, it seems that God keeps watching over us daily and makes things happen with the mind instructing the body. It solves the problem of how the mind and the body affect one another. Its weakness is the assumption that God watches over us daily.

Explanation of body-mind with reference to circular causation sounds more appropriate and relevant than linear causation. Different correlations have been studied in neuroscience between brain activity and conscious experiences. Consciousness which is a biological process of molecular signaling and interaction of the nerve cells therefore remains a challenge since relating it directly to brain activities is difficult and yet to be proven as a process. However, daily science increasingly gets interested in human perception, action and thinking. It dwells on how the human body interacts with its surroundings and the way in which those particular interactions shape the mind of a human body. This is evident in the Cartesian divide between the immaterial mind and the material existence of human beings (Damasio, 1994). A study of bodily actions provides a bridge across the mind-body relation. This is because they neither react to external stimuli nor indications of mental states which only contain relationships to the features of the action. On the other hand, parallelism shows the non-existence of a relationship between matter and the immortal mind. When one’s mind decides dictate the body rhyme, it becomes a coincidence that the body walks over there. They only appear to. This therefore brings in mind the body-mind correlation concept as described by God in the case of Leibniz in Pre-established Harmony.