Rene Descartes And Modern Dualism : Nature Of The Mind

René Descartes believed that the mind and body are separate; that the senses could not always be trusted, but that because we as humans are able to think about our existence, we possess some sort of entity separate than our fleshly body. I believe this separate entity to be a soul”an immaterial and

From my perspective, the mind always seemed like a complicated and intricate puzzle. It was a puzzle that I had no desire to evaluate or even begin to learn more about. It was something that I had just accepted because I believed it was above my understanding and much too complex. However, I never thought to look at just one small piece of the puzzle. If I could just focus on one little section, maybe I could increase my overall knowledge of the mind. By reading the book, Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, I was given the opportunity to be able to specialize on one very crucial part of our mind. A part that deals with how we view ourselves and others, our communication, and the reasoning behind our actions. This is called our mindset. While reading

Often many times we wonder what it is like to understand the mind and its functions, yet to understand it we have to have the knowledge to go forth with it. The mind is a complex figure to understand; furthermore the mind is something you must understand on your own. The philosophical meaning of the mind is, the nature of mental phenomena, and their behavior, nonetheless the brain. The mind is not something easy to make sense of, its like reading a hundred pages of Spanish writings and being able to tell the whole story to someone who doesn't speak the same language as you. Things like reality, computers, conciseness, reactions, response, etc, come into factor when figuring out the mind.

But in order to further clarify this "thing that thinks,” he admits that there is always the possibility that he may be dreaming or deceived by an evil demon, since he is something that also imagines and senses seen. (13,15). He elaborates on this idea that if he is after

Theories have been composed and exposed by various philosophers to explain their understanding about the mind. Dualism, Behaviorism and Identity Theory are well-known theories supported by well-written explanations. A modern theory, Functionalism has been proposed that provides great insight to the main problem philosophers deal with, the mind/body problem.

The most compelling theory of mind to me so far has been Churchland’s arguments for eliminative materialism. Churchland argues for eliminative materialism, which contends that our common sense psychological framework is incorrect, and should be rejected (Essentially that many of the mental states I believe in do not exist and will not likely correspond well with biological processes). Though I at first found this claim startling, Churchland’s rhetoric and presentation of his argument is clear and he effectively supports his argument that eliminative materialism is more likely to be true than other theories of the mind by appealing at times to neuroscience and arguing that what mankind needs to successfully explain the mind is beyond our reach.

The mind and body problem can be divided into many different questions. We can consider or ask by ourselves that what is the mind? What is the body? And do both of them are co-existing, or does the mind only exist in the body? Or does the body only exist

However, the Meditator realizes that he is often convinced when he is dreaming that he is sensing real objects. He feels certain that he is awake and sitting by the fire, but reflects that often he has dreamed this very sort of thing and been thoroughly convinced by it. On further reflection, he realizes that even simple things can be doubted. Omnipotent God could make even our conception of mathematics false. One might argue that God is supremely good and would not lead Descartes to believe falsely all these things. He supposes that not God, but some "evil demon" has committed itself to deceiving him so that everything he thinks he knows is false. By doubting everything, he can at least be sure not to be misled into falsehood by this demon.

Descartes as a rationalist believes that knowledge comes from the mind alone. During the First Meditation, Descartes came to the conclusion that there must be some kind of evil deceiver that "leads him to a state of doubt" (Descartes 77). Descartes starts out with the fact that distant sensations are subject to doubt and uncertainty. He then goes on to try and cast doubt onto close sensations. Descartes starts off by stating that close sense perception must be certain because we are not crazy, and only a insane person would doubt what was right in front of them. Descartes then uses the dream argument to cast uncertainty on close sense perception because "they are as lively, vivid and clear as reality is when we are awake" (Descartes 76). Descartes then states that geometry and math are certain. "For whether I am awake or sleeping, two and three added together always make five, and a square never has more than four sides; and it does not seem possible that truths so apparent can be suspected of any falsity or uncertainty" (Descartes 98). Descartes comes to realize this certainty because math, geometry, and the simple sciences can be understood and proved through logic and reasoning. He then uses his Deceiver Argument to cast doubt on close sensations. He questions how we know for certain that God is good, and how we know that

explanation of where our minds, or consciousness, came from and how we are able to

“The mind-body dualism, in philosophy, is the fact that any theory that the mind and body are distinct kinds of substances or natures. This position implies that mind and body not only differ in meaning, but refer to different kinds of entities (Britannica).” The most basic form of dualism is substance dualism. Substance dualism is the idea that he mind and body are composed of two ontologically distinct substances. According to one who believes and studies dualism, the mind is comprised of a non-physical substance, while the body is constituted of the physical substance, also known as matter. Dualism is closely related to the philosophy of Rene Descartes. Descartes identified the mind with consciousness and self-awareness and distinguished this from the brain. He believed that the brain was the seat of all intelligence. This lead to a great debate over the mind and body. So, ultimately, what is the nature of the mind and consciousness and its relationship to the body?

     Through his philosophical search Descartes was able to find one indubitable certainty, that we are thinking beings. We always think, even when we have doubts that we are thinking we are still thinking because a doubt is a thought. Although Descartes found this one universal truth, he was still not able to believe in anything but the fact that he was a thinking being. Therefore he still doubted everything around him. He used this one certainty to try to find a system of knowledge about everything in the world. Descartes idea was to propose a hypothesis about something. For example he might say that a perfect being was in existence. He would go around this thought in a methodical way, doubting it, all the while trying to identify it as a certainty. Doubting everything was at first dangerous because in doubting everything he was also admitting that he doubted the existence of God, and thus opposing the church. However he made it a point to tell us at the beginning of his Discourse on Methods that what he was writing was only for himself and that he expected no one but himself to follow it (Descartes 14, 15). Descartes eventually managed to prove the existence of a higher being. He said that since he had the idea of a perfect being, then that perfect being must exist. His

Dualism is a broad term that can encompass many areas within philosophy itself. In aspect to metaphysics, it classifies the types of entities in the world into two subcategories, physical and non physical substance. While this may appear to be a very wide and ambiguous opinion, it becomes very specific in regards to our own existence. Paul Churchland puts it very explicitly in his book Matter and Consciousness, and defines dualism as the idea that, “the essential nature of conscious intelligence resides in something nonphysical” (Churchland 1). Though dualism is a highly regarded and popular view on the state of existence, its core arguments present an array of problems that detract from the credibility of its

This paper will attempt to explain Descartes’ first argument for the distinction that exists between mind and body. Dualism is a necessary aspect of Descartes’ metaphysics and epistemology. This distinction is important within the larger framework of Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) because after doubting everything (body, extension, senses, etc.), Descartes comes to the conclusion that because he doubts, he must be a thinking thing and therefore exist (p.43). This means that the mind must be separate and independent from the body. One can doubt that the body exists while leaving the mind intact. To doubt that the mind exists, however, is contradictory. For if the mind does not exist, how, or with what, is that doubt being accomplished.

But the reverse is not true: it is impossible to think of imagination or sensation or purposeful movement without a mind. That is to say, the former are of the body, but not merely of the body. Descartes writes, 'In imagining, it [the mind] turns towards the body' (Meditations 6, II, 51). These things are distinct from mind as possible modes are from a thing (e.g. as a cuboid shape is from a body). On the other hand, mind cannot be thought without it thinking, at least in the sense of pure thought - therefore thinking in the non-bodily sense of 'pure' intellection (see Principles, part one, §32, I, 204) is an essential mode. This distinction between merely possible and essential modes provides an argument for the separability of pure mind from things of the body. But, again, 'separability' does not mean 'separate' - the immediate and almost overwhelming fact of our existence is the factual togetherness of mind and body.