preview

A Search For True Identity

Better Essays

In a search for true identity, it is impossible to look at purely just the mind or just the body because a persons’ identity lies beyond the physicality of one’s reality. Many different debates have left people baffled when it comes to defining one’s identity or self. Descartes and Ghost in the shell explore in depth the means of their self. Descartes often speaks about mind and body dualism in his meditations and that the mind is separate. However when you look at the mind and body separately, you are left with a dilemma; Observing one or the other by itself doesn’t really get you anywhere. All of the knowledge we acquire throughout our lives are connected to some other known idea or concept. During one of his meditations, Descartes mentions, “Nor should I think that I do not perceive the infinite by means of a true idea, but only through a negation of the finite. Just as I perceive rest and darkness by means of a negation through motion and light” (Descartes 6.46). It is impossible to comprehend what the mind is by looking at it solely; you have to put it in comparison with what a body means. You cannot comprehend what a mind is just like how you cannot comprehend what a body is until you put them in contrast or comparison with each other. Another way of looking at it is by considering it a struggle with the concept of what a consciousness is defined by. When it is brought into question what the self is, it is also peering into the idea of an awareness past the material

Get Access