How Did Rene Descartes Contribute To Psychology

As a result, Descartes believes the mind cannot extend like the body. Descartes uses a result that was made in the second meditation, “But what kind of a thing? As I have just said – a thinking thing,” (18) to make the claim in the sixth meditation, “For when I consider the mind, or myself in so far as I am merely a thinking thing…” (59) and as a result the mind, according to Descartes, is not identical with the body. Conscious, is another basis for Descartes’ argument. Consciousness is presented in the second meditation where Descartes states the mind is a thinking thing. He can conclude that the mind has a conscience while the physical body doesn’t have a conscience so again, the mind and body are not identical.

The mind/body problem is known as Dualism. It is an investigation of the relationship between the mind and body. The mind deals with mental processes, thoughts and consciousness of the brain. The body deals with physical aspects of the brain-neurons and determines the structure of the brain. In contrast is the mind considered part of the body or the body part of the mind? What is the interaction between the two and how is it possible? The one big question many people want to know is which one is in control of the

René Magritte Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte was a master not only of the obvious, but of the obscure as well. In his artwork, Magritte toyed with everyday objects, human habits and emotions, placing them in foreign contexts and questioning their familiar meanings. He suggested new interpretations of old things in his deceivingly simple paintings, making the commonplace profound and the rational irrational. He painted his canvasses in the same manner as he lived his life -- in strange modesty and under constant analysis. Magritte was born in 1898 in the small town of Lessines, a cosmopolitan area of Belgium that was greatly influenced by the French.

he distinction between the mind-body has been a controversial issue for centuries. Descartes' views differed from earlier scholars who described the mind-body as having different entities, one was physical and the other was abstract. Additionally, the theory that existed implied that the interaction between mind-body flowed in one direction. Therefore, the mind had a greater influence on the body, but on the other hand, the body had very little effect on the mind. One scholar described it as "a puppeteer pulling the strings of the body" which was almost independent of each other. However, Descartes had a different perspective on how he viewed the mind-body. He agreed the mind-body was different, however he also believed the mind

In Meditation One: Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called into Doubt, Descartes reflects on everything he thought to be true as a child. He then goes on to

He also knows for certain that various ideas appear before his mind. To work with Descartes has himself as a non-extended thinking thing and his ideas.

Descartes had a very mechanistic view of the brain. He believed the body works similar to machines as it is material and follows laws of physics. He suggests that mind and body interact at the pineal gland. He predicted that there are tube-like structures inside our bodies that tighten under

Descartes’ dualistic view of mind and body is that they are two separate entities in which the mind is immaterial and the body being material. Descartes supports this by assuming,”If we can conceive of one thing without the other, then those two things are different”(90). Furthermore, Descartes’ view holds that humans are not their body, but just their thinking mind essentially because they are distinct from one another. The thinking mind is important for the self to develop and it does not need to body to develop that self. They do affect each other where the mind tells the body what to do, but one can grow to be weak and the other strong at the same time.

Descartes, a philosopher, mathematician and scientist, was a fundamental player in the scientific revolution, which influenced his perspectives on the question of self. His principle tenant, the famously quoted, “Cogito, ergo sum – I think, therefore I am,” reflects his core belief of thinking and of self-awareness as key to personal identity. Descartes was strongly influenced by Plato and Augustine. Descartes philosophical underpinnings can be understood as an extension of Plato and Augustine’s dualistic view in which, “…body and soul remain irreconcibily divided, two radically different entities with diverging fates: the body to die, the soul to live eternally in a transcendent realm of Truth and Beauty” (Descartes 99). While Descartes acknowledges the body, he argued that it was secondary because it can be thought of independently. Descartes felt he was, “…able clearly and distinctly to conceive one thing apart from another, in order to be certain that the one is different from the other, seeing they may at least be able to exist separately …” (Descartes 106). Descartes argued that mind is completely different from body and it is possible for one to exist without the other.

Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six

In conclusion, this paper has explained Descartes view on bodies and animals, and analyzed whether Descartes believed that animals had minds. Explanation of Descartes view of minds and bodies has been provided, indicating that he believed that the mind and body were “tightly jointed”, as well as, his view of how the body would act without a mind. From these explanations, we have been able to conclude and explain why that Descartes would believe that animal do have minds.

Rene Descartes most known for his saying "I think, therefore I am.", can be described as a French mathematician, scientist, and a philosopher. He was born in France on March 31, 1596 and he died in Stockholm, Sweden on February 11, 1650. His parents were Jeanne Brochard and Joachim Descartes. His mother died before Descartes' first birthday. His father was a council member who had no time for his family and therefore sent Descartes and his siblings to live with their grandmother (Smith). However, Descartes' father was obsessed with his children receiving a thorough education; therefore, he sent Rene Descartes to a boarding school at the Jesuit college of Henry IV when Descartes was eight years old. It has been speculated that while Rene Descartes

“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?

In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes strives first and foremost to provide an infallibly justified foundation for the empirical sciences, and second to prove the existence of God. I will focus on the first and second meditations in my attempt to show that, in his skepticism of the sources of knowledge, he fails to follow the rules he has set out in the Discourse on Method. First I claim that Descartes fails to draw the distinction between pure sensation and inference, which make up what he calls sensation, and then consider the consequences of this failure to follow his method. Second, I will show that in his treatment of thinking Descartes fails to distinguish between active and passive thinking.

Before these changes were apparent, Descartes pointed out the difficulties of relying on the senses, of the physical body. In section 31 of Meditation two, he says that the perception he has, "is a case not of vision or touch or imagination - nor has it ever been, despite previous appearances - but of purely mental scrutiny". Descartes shows that our senses cannot be used to have knowledge of things in the external world, and that knowledge of these things must come through the mind alone.