...Course Date Descartes Premise for Distinguishing Body and Mind In the Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes discusses the nature of the body and mind. By drawing from three lines of thought, Descartes launches a powerful premise that the body is something distinct from the mind. He conceptualizes his argument by using the uncertainty of knowledge argument, appealing to God’s omnipotence, and describing the indivisibility of the body and mind. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyze Descartes’s premise for distinguishing the body and mind. In the first Meditation, Descartes begins by discussing a topic that seems far removed from the subject, yet instrumental to his argument. He questions the certainty of reality or truth of worldly opinions. In meditations 1.5, he notes that his opinions about the world are based on senses and argues that he cannot be certain that his senses deceive him. He argues that he cannot be sure that what he thinks of as his perceptions of the world are not dreams (Cress 36). Because there is no mechanism for distinguishing sleep from wake, Descartes says that he is also uncertain about the existence of the body. In addition, he argues that an evil demon may be deceiving him about the existence of the sky, air, colors, sounds, and bodies yet such things are illusions of dreams (Cress 41). By reflecting on the scenario of the evil demon and dreaming, Descartes doubts whether external things such as the body exists. In the...
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...argument, you can now restate the conclusion of the argument.] [Section 2: Critical analysis/critique of the argument] [Analyze each premise of the argument you summarized.] [Explanation] [Is the premise true or false?] [Explain why you think so.] [Give an example to support this.] [Explain your example.] [Clarify your explanation.] [Consider possible objections the philosopher could have to particular criticisms you made above.] [Conclude with a sentence asserting that you have proved your thesis.] Detailed Explanation and Examples 1. [Paragraph 1] Explain the purpose of your paper. [This means restate the essay question]. a. [First one or two sentence(s)] For example, if you are being asked to summarize and critique Descartes’ argument for mind/body dualism, then you would say something like: i. “In...
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...Aristotle‘s concept of mind with that of Descartes. Introduction In this essay I attempt to show Aristotle’s concept of soul/mind*[1]. Then I compare and contrast it with Descartes’ concept of mind. In order to understand Aristotle’s concepts of mind, I shall consider Aristotle’s De Anima, in which Aristotle mostly concentrates on soul/mind discussion. I will examine the work of Kahn and Sorabji, who both considered Aristotle’s and Descartes’ philosophy in relation to soul and body problem. In order to compare Aristotle’s concept of mind with Descartes’, I am going to introduce Descartes’ most famous philosophical work which involves the question of mind directly, namely hisMeditations. …………………………. …………………………… ………………………………. If we look at Aristotle’s De Anima we can understand that pre-Aristotle thinkers were already concerned with corporeal and incorporeal problems. For example, for Plato soul was an ‘incorporeal’ and immortal thing, but body corporeal and mortal. The first impression we get from reading De Anima is that the mind and body problem was unsolved. Perhaps the resolved problem didn’t satisfy Aristotle. Aristotle claims that an incorporeal thing cannot exist without a corporeal thing. Aristotle’s new theory for solving soul and body problems makes controversial debate among most post-Aristotelian philosophers. Rene Descartes was one of them who rejected the Aristotelian concept of mind in which corporeal and incorporeal...
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...Rene Descartes’ theory of dualism was one of most advanced forms of philosophical dualism, it is commonly related to the correspondence between Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and Descartes. In this essay, I will explain the problem that Elisabeth had with Descartes new found ideas and elaborate on his replies. In doing so I will create a deeper understanding of Cartesian Dualism and analyze the possibility of it still being an accurate claim after many centuries. Descartes’ felt the only thing in his life that could not be a deception from the Great Demon was his mind. He believed his body and surroundings could all be an illusion, but of the one thing he was sure of, because he had complete control over was his mind, his philosophy was “I think, therefore I am.” Because of this, he proposed that the mind and the body were two separate entities. This proposal went against the common theories of the time, leading Princess Elisabeth to write to Descartes asking for further explanation on what exactly he meant by the mind and body being “separate”. She asked how it could be possible for the mind and body to be separate entities yet still work in perfect unity. Descartes suggests that because of Elisabeth’s metaphysical beliefs, she is not capable of comprehending the mind and body as individual, separate entities. (Tollesfen, 1999) However, Princess Elisabeth did not only write to Descartes to have Philosophical conversation, but for assurance on the morality of Descartes theory...
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...mankind and those we consider to be product of the Supreme Mind; there is flora and there is fauna; there are things that we can modify and things that humans have no control over. One of the many ways to differentiate and classify everything and anything in the surrounding environment and, probably, one of the most universal ways, is to classify things as being either material or immaterial. It seems fairly easy to distinguish between the two. If we cannot touch, feel or see something, then it becomes the notion of the immaterial world. The rest belongs to the material things, which we can own, trade, purchase, possess, lose or give away. When Rene Descartes, one of the founders of the modern-day western philosophical science, laid the groundwork for his epistemological perspective called Cartesian Dualism, he was coming exactly from the same universal idea. The thoughts and hypotheses that Descartes tried so hard, throughout his lifetime’s work, to develop into axioms and prove to be fundamentally true, surprisingly remain highly debatable and are still largely in question. Philosophy is very much about the question of certainty. To a great extent, from the epistemological perspective, knowledge is certainty (Harris, 2009). Just as the case is with Plato, whose quest for certainty has driven his metaphysics to take it, as a prerequisite, that if something is known, then it cannot change (Frank et al., 2011), Descartes too attempted to deduce the formula that would be true for...
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...The mind-body problem is a dilemma. What is the relationship between mind and body? Or alternatively, what is the relationship between mental properties and physical properties? Descartes believed that there were two kinds of substance: matter, of which the essential property is that it is spiritually extended and mind, of which the essential property is that it thinks. So for Descartes, the essence of mind is thinking, while the essence of body is extension. Descartes also believed in an independent non-material mind inhabiting and finding expression in a mechanically operated body. Descartes proposed the aphorism, Cogito ergo sum, which means “I think, therefore I am” in English. This statement means that because a person is a thinking being, his or her existence is made possible by the act of thinking. Therefore, the act of thinking, which is a mental process, makes it possible for a person to undergo physical activities. This is how the non-material interacts with the material and how the extended substance of body houses the unextended spirit called mind. In summary, Descartes’ Dualism assumes that both the mind and the body exist. While the mind is distinct from the body for the nature of spirit, the mental processes exist due to the existence of the mind which is apart from the physical processes of body. Descartes also thought that the mind and body interact, and this interaction occurs at a specific site, the pineal gland. Based on Descartes’ assumptions...
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...“Mediation of First Philosophy’’, Rene Descartes attempts to separate the truth from false and the imaginary from reality while giving new hope to his readers. He actually tries to withdraw from his previous conclusions claiming that he could have used senses rather than thinking and therefore this round he withdraws totally from senses through a process of methodological doubt. He creates a sense of doubt in other scholars work by disputing their line of thinking with a distinguished line of logic. He sheds off any criticism directed at him and urges his readers to argue along his line of logic to get his concept and reason. HOW OR WHY THE COGITO EGO SUM IS HOPEFUL. Descartes concludes that he cannot doubt his existence. He argues that doing so would mean that even the idea of doubting would not exist and as far as it exists, then its source is him, his mind. However, the existence of the body puts him in a situation of doubt. He thinks that the idea of a mind implanted in a body is a deception and forms a basis of argument and cross psychological analysis. He goes ahead to state that this would be demons work of deceiving him or it can be that God was praying tricks on him, something he really doesn’t conquer with. God being perfect, He would not do that. ‘I think, therefore I am’ in the Discourse on method is hopeful because it brings out the picture of knowledge, that the mind can know itself better than it can do to anything else. Descartes is certain that he can only support...
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...Explain concisely the philosophical problems of the relation between the mind and body. The mind and our understanding of what it is has been the centre of philosophical debate since the 6th Century BC where the ancient Greeks sort for ways of explaining human action. No longer did the Homeric understanding that human action was simply the result of his environment sufficient, an inward search to explain actions took place and as such, the concept of psyche was developed. The concept of psyche evolved through terms such as soul and then mind through philosophical debate and mistranslation since this period, and it is the aim of this paper to show how the mind has been conceptualised and the irrationality of associating in like form to that of the body. In order to understand the problems with relating the mind and body – the concept of Cartesian dualism, as theorised by Descartes needs to be examined. Descartes believed in an independent nonmaterial soul inhabiting and finding expression in a mechanically operated body. Descartes used his own words cogito ergo sum, “I am thinking therefore I exist” as somewhat of an unanswerable means of proof. In an attempt to understand everything and break it down to its most simplest form, Descartes the skeptic attempted to doubt everything in order to understand himself. He argues that he can doubt everything around himself, he can even doubt that his own body exists, however he can no doubt that he is doubting, - he could not doubt...
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...The mind-body problem has been always been a controversial subject which can simply be defined as the uniqueness of the mind’s relation to bodies. To ignite this argument, one could ask the question “how can anything that acts only by thinking have effects on something that can be acted upon only by being moved?” With that, an in depth look into dualism (any philosophical position that divides existence into two completely distinct, independent, unique substances) is presented. For some, a car-driver analogy can be used. The mind is the driver and the body is the car. However, Descartes rejects this idea and unites the mind and body into a whole. This leads us to Cartesian dualism. Cartesian dualism can be defined as sensations that go with the body, not with the mind, but they only exist from the perspective of the mind. Descartes was the first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self-awareness and to distinguish this from the brain, which was the seat of intelligence. Descartes held that the immaterial mind and the material body are two completely different types of substances and that they interact with each other. He reasoned that the body could be divided up by removing a leg or arm, but the mind or soul were indivisible. As proof, Descartes used cogito ergo sum, "I reflect, therefore I am." We cannot doubt the existence of our own self because we cannot doubt it unless there was a self to do the doubting. Though the mind and body are of a different nature...
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...why the mind-body problem (i.e., the problem of the interaction between the mind and the body) is a challenge (or an objection) to Descartes’ philosophy of mind. In other words, explain how we can make an argument from the mind-body problem against Descartes’ theory of the mind. Descartes’ philosophy of mind has several aspects, but not all of them are related to the mind-body problem. Please first explain the relevant parts of his philosophy of mind, and then explain the challenge from the mind-body problem. Ziyao Wang Phil105 Prof. Chong Yuan Feb.1st Descartes was the first to formulate the mind–body problem in the form in which it exists today. He identified the mind with consciousness and thoughts are distinguished from the brain as the position of hardware. There are several parts of Descartes’ philosophy of mind. To begin with, your brain is totally independent of your body, you can exist without a body. Secondly, you know your mind and thoughts most much more than anything else. Furthermore, body must have space and mind must has thoughts and no space. Take animal for example, animals do not have thoughts because they cannot think. Last but not least, the certain things cannot be doubted. The most important, Descartes is a dualist, in his view, the mind and the body are not the same thing. Minds, thoughts and consciousness are not in the space, however, body must in space. Moreover, the brain just serves as a connection between the mind and the body. Human’s...
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...The mind/body problem in Descartes Descartes had a major role in shaping and influencing modern philosophy during the rationalism movement. This idea of rationalism was a method of understanding the world through the application of reason as the means to obtaining knowledge. It was during this age of enlightenment that Rationalism and empiricism which can be defined as the acquirement of knowledge through practical experience rather than pure reason, had made its impact as one of the main intellectual and cultural factors that had revolutionized the western world. Thus, the study of science, mathematics and philosophy were all put into question and radically transformed during this period. In 1636, Descartes released his first work ‘Discourse on the Method’ where he discussed techniques on problem solving and introduces one of the most famous philosophical quotes of all time, Cogito ergo sum, or “I think, therefore I exist.” His second work, ‘Meditations on First philosophy’ that addressed the disputes concerning his first published work, ‘Discourse on the Method’, had theories that would change the way people thought about their minds and bodies and the relationship between the two. In reference to this statement, Descartes proposes rational explanations that the human mind is distinct and separated from the body due to his assertion that the mind is the soul that outlives the body and this ultimately results to him attributing the splendors and working of the mind to the...
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...2014 Rene Descartes: Mediations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes, known as one of the most influential philosophers of his time, is famously quoted to have been proven the existence of himself with the infamous statement, Cogito ergo sum or (in English) I think, therefore I am. Rene Descartes has claimed to have proven his own existence in this world by claiming that he is in fact a thinking thing, and that therefore he must be something that exists. This raises the question, how can Descartes truly prove to us that in fact he thinks, and how can he prove that since he thinks he therefore can say that he exists? In this essay I will be explaining the reasoning’s of proof as to why Descartes says that he thinks and that therefore he exists, and I will give sufficient support as to why Rene Descartes is in fact correct about his claims that he has stated in his Philosophy of Mediations. The evidence that I will be providing in support for Descartes statement I think, therefore I am include, Descartes doubtfulness of all things he once believed to be true (which he says has been false lies to have been told to him all of his life) (A. w. Bailey, First Philosphy, Second Edition 26-28), secondly his three proofs for his skepticism mentioned in the first piece of evidence listed previously (Descartes asking if he is dreaming or if he is really awake, his painters argument of how dream like/ images arise from real things, and an evil like demon trying to trick Rene Descartes into thinking...
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...Paper #1: Descartes and Artificial Intelligence Blade Runner, a film based in the future, precisely 2019 shows the world with genetically engineered robots called replicants. Replicants look just like other adult beings that are substitutes for humans that live for only four years. Living for such a short period of time allows no opportunity for development or emotional growth. The name of the film Blade Runner, are those who hunt for “replicants” that are banned from earth for defying their position in society. Descartes provides us with principles that he considers is the nature of the human mind and its evaluating process, in which the replicants would not be considered human. In Descartes Sixth Meditation we see the distinguishing factors between the mind and body. “From this we are prompted to acknowledge that the natures of mind and body not only are different from one another, but even, in a manner of speaking, are contraries of one another”. Mind is different than the body. When both are working in equilibrium we are functioning well. Compared to replicants who have no thoughts or feelings, just the ability to continuously work and complete the task assigned to them. This is a result of the body performing physical labor while having no thought or interferences of the mind. To be considered a human you need to have these important things working in accordance, according to Descartes. “I am therefore precisely nothing but a thinking thing; that is, a mind, or intellect...
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...The correspondence between philosopher René Descartes and the Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia from 1643 to 1649 give incredible insight not only into the person of René Descartes but the intricacies of his philosophical views, particularly as a critical review of his substance dualism. The core tenants of Cartesian dualism are (in brief) that; 1) There exists only two distinct types of substance; material substances (of the body and the physical realm – that is extended spatially) and immaterial substances (that make up the mind, rationality and the soul.) 2) In relation to the body – Descartes is a mechanist; such that the body operates like a machine, according to internal laws, reactivity to external stimuli. The soul or mind is capable of diverting these automated principles; such that we see the distinction between human reason and action, and the behaviour of animals....
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...Argument Introduced The Conceivability Argument occurs in Meditation VI. It is Descartes’ most celebrated argument. It was criticised in its day and has been ever since. The argument purports to establish that minds are non-physical substances and hence that a mind is not identical to any bit of the body, such as the brain. A person is a special unity of two substances: physical substance (the body) and mental substance (the mind). Only humans are such special unities. Animals have bodies but lack minds and angels have minds but lack bodies. Here’s the passage: First, I know that everything which I clearly and distinctly understand is capable of being created by God so as to correspond exactly with my understanding of it. Hence the fact that I can clearly and distinctly understand one thing apart from another is enough to make me certain that the two things are distinct, since they are capable of being separated, at least by God. The question of what kind of power is required to bring about such a separation does not affect the judgment that they are distinct. Thus, simply by knowing that I exist and seeing at the same time that absolutely nothing belongs to my nature or essence except that I am a thinking thing, I can infer correctly that my essence consists solely in the fact that I am a thinking thing. It is true that I may have (or, to anticipate, that I certainly have) a body that is very closely joined to me. But, nevertheless, on the one hand I have a clear...
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