Analysis Of Descartes On The Theory Of Mind And Body

838 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Descartes view on mind and body

Descartes studied the notions of truth, belief, and justification. His pursuit was to find the truth with certain knowledge that he acquired. Descartes’s believes that our mind and body are separate; therefore he could not trust his own senses. In order to reconstruct his knowledge to the point were there was no doubt he must only trust clear and distinct ideas. He argues that the mind is immaterial and the body is material, which he states as dualism and are independent substances. He states that the only thing to be trusted is the mind since it is what defines that “I” exist. Because we can’t trust or senses then is the body part of a dream or an illusion? We are humans and what completes us is our mind and body together as one. Our senses …show more content…

He believed that what Descartes conclusion of mind and body being separate was a category mistake. Ryle said, “the category mistake was applying properties to a non-material thing that are logically and grammatically appropriate only for a category including material things” (Gilbert Ryle). The mind is invisible and has no size or weight and mechanical laws in the physical world govern the body. Therefore, the mind can cause the body to act but the body can also cause an effect on the mind. The mind and body both can create an effect to the physical world. Not only are they connected together but also after death both will continue to function and …show more content…

“Relations of ideas are indestructible bonds created between ideas and all logically true statements and matters of fact are concerned with experience and we are certain of matters of fact through cause and effect“(Hume Section IV). This proves that the both the mind and body are one because of the cause and effect. He believes that there are connections between all ideas in the mind, and that there are three different kinds. The first is resemblance that describes looking at a picture then thinking of what it represents in the picture. Then there is contiguity looking at something then thinking of about something different. Then there is the cause and effect of something happening to you and then to imagine the pain of the wound. Once again beginning able to look at something and then create an idea from it only proves that without senses we couldn’t just come up with an idea out of the blue.
Descartes does make a good point on not trusting our senses. Why, because how do we really know if it’s real or not, or if we are dreaming or if it’s an illusion, and/or if’s an evil demon that is trying to treat us. That’s why Descartes divides the mind and body because the only thing that we can trust is our mind. If we think something then it’s our own thoughts that create that idea, therefore it is our own act that isn’t being deceived by anyone or any evil demon. The mind is the only

Show More
Related

  • Redefining Self-Perception: Descartes vs. Classical Traditions

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is a change from ancient and medieval traditions, like Aristotle, because Descartes does not focus externally on a soul or on an external thing that is using the human body; rather Descartes believes that the body is used to give us perceptions but that we cannot always trust these perceptions while seeking the truth (Brown 156). Descartes explains that “... our senses sometimes deceive us, I wish to suppose that nothing is just as they cause us to imagine it to be… I resolved to assume that everything that ever entered into my mind was no more than the illusions of my dreams” (Brown 156). Descartes also mentions that he does not believe all things are false because of his existence, he thought “... remarking that this truth ‘I think, therefore I am’ was so certain… if I only ceased from thinking, even if all the rest of what I ever imagined had really existed, I should have no reason for thinking that I had existed. From that I knew I was a substance the whole essence or nature if which is to think” (Brown

    Read More

  • An Examination of the Second Meditation of Descartes

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    Baird and Kaufmann, the editors of our text, explain in their outline of Descartes' epistemology that the method by which the thinker carried out his philosophical work involved first discovering and being sure of a certainty, and then, from that certainty, reasoning what else it meant one could be sure of. He would admit nothing without being absolutely satisfied on his own (i.e., without being told so by others) that it was incontrovertible truth. This system was unique, according to the editors, in part because Descartes was not afraid to face doubt. Despite the fact that it was precisely doubt of which he was endeavoring to rid himself, he nonetheless allowed it the full reign it deserved and demanded over his intellectual labors. "Although uncertainty and doubt were the enemies," say Baird and Kaufmann (p.16), "Descartes hit upon the idea of using doubt as a tool or as a weapon. . . . He would use doubt as an acid to pour over every 'truth' to see if there was anything that could not be dissolved . . . ." This test, they explain, resulted for Descartes in the conclusion that, if he doubted everything in the world there was to doubt, it was still then certain that he was doubting; further, that in order to doubt, he had to exist. His own existence, therefore, was the first truth he could admit to with certainty, and it became the basis for the remainder of his epistemology.

    Read More

  • Rene Descartes Wax Argument

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    One cannot deny the senses however the mind is what allows the senses to even be perceived. Descartes broke his argument down so that it can be followed easily. This method virtually diminishes any counterarguments because he is basing it all on examples that are easy to grasp and relate to. His conclusion was based on solid fact building stating with the basics of the senses and guiding to his deeper understanding of what all the mind is and how it is distinct from the body through the body’s physical

    Read More

  • Exploring Knowledge and Doubt in 'Meditations on First Philosophy'

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    He explains the concept of Cartesian body in which he states that there is some connection between mind and body. Mind doesn’t necessarily need any imagination for thinking process but body is somewhere linked to imagination. He explains many links between mind and body. He gives examples like if he feels hungry, his mind would tell his body to eat something. These types of examples make him understand that mind and body works in a parallel way. But mind is distinct from the body, as Descartes’s existence is a thinking thing which is independent of body and Descartes’s body is an extended thing which is independent of mind. So he concludes that he being a thinking thing can exist without a body. But mind and body are combined to form one unit. This leads him to the idea of Cartesian dualism, which is mind-body dualism. If we carefully use our mind, we can avoid judgments which consist of errors. Furthermore, he explains the existence of external material things. He proves it by explaining that he believes in the existence of external material things because of his senses. God has created him with this nature and as God is not a deciever, material things exist and contain the properties necessary for

    Read More

  • The Dream Argument by Rene Descartes

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Descartes argument is quite an interesting one. Descartes takes a good endeavor to make sense of something that is quite supernatural, that even scientists today have trouble giving a 100 percent true explanation. At the roots of what Descartes is attempting to put forward, it does seem logical and simple. At the beginning of the very first meditation, Descartes states that he has lost his trust in his senses because they can be easily deceived (Descartes, 18). While dreaming sometimes it feels very real, just as it does while awake in reality....

    Read More

  • Mind Body Dualism

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    Descartes claims there is a real distinction between the mind and body. In the Second Meditation the Meditator establishes his existence, that he is a thinking thing and the distinction between the mind and body. Descartes claims he is a thinking thing and since he can think he exists, same too with the mind. The mind is a thing that thinks therefore the mind exists. Using the method of doubt discussed in the First Meditation, Descartes is able to doubt the existence of the body but not the mind. Descartes cannot doubt that he has a mind , but can doubt he has a body therefore Descartes is a thinking thing and not a body. He can exists as a thinking thing without a body because the body's existence can be doubted.

    Read More

  • Innate Ideas

    1450 Words  | 3 Pages

    “We owe the notion of “the mind” as a separate entity in which “processes” occur to the same period, and especially to Descartes” (Rorty, 2008, p. 234). Plato was the first philosopher to argue that there was something beyond our body. Descartes agree with Plato on this theory and explored this idea more in-depth. Stating that these innate ideas exist, but they remain idle in our minds until a significant event awakens them. He arrived at this idea by doubting everything that he was taught was the truth, and he even doubted his own sense saying that they were deceptive, and after using philosophy of doubt he came to the realization of his existence through the logical reasoning. After he established that his senses were not real, he began to doubt his brain, he stated that our dreams are an interpretation of reality, even though they seem so real. He says that it was only thr...

    Read More

  • Comparison of Descartes and Heidegger

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    Second, Descartes raised a more systematic method for doubting the legitimacy of all sensory perception. Since my most vivid dreams are internally indistinguishible from waking experience, he argued, it is possible that everything I now "perceive" to be part of the physical world outside me is in fact nothing more than a fanciful fabrication of my own imagination. On this supposition, it is possible to doubt that any physical thing really exists, that there is an external world at all. (Med. I)

    Read More

  • Descartes Sixth Meditation

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    Only halfway; too many things are left up in the air, and the language is not quite clear. The mind and body can each exist separately and independently of one another. But they also need one another to work properly. This relationship is why the mind and body argument was shown with the sailor and ship scenario. By claiming that the mind and body were similarly related to each other as the sailor and the ship, Descartes was giving the average but intuitive reader something to ponder about while trying to make up his or her own mind about the relation between mind and body.

    Read More

  • Essay On Theaetetus

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    He quickly releases that this is the foundation of most of his beliefs. He first acknowledges that sometime our senses can deceive us, but say that our senses is mostly sturdy. It is after this that Descartes realizes that there has been times where he has been sleeping and in his dream he was certain that he was awake and sensing real objects. Though his current senses may have be dream senses, he suggests that even dream senses are drawn from our experience of us awake. He then discovers that there are times in which he cannot distinguish whether he is in his waking state and his dream state.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of George Berkeley And Descartes

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Descartes, “because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wanted to suppose that nothing was exactly as they led us to imagine (Descartes 18).” In order to extinguish his uncertainty and find incontrovertible truth, he chooses to “raze everything to the ground and begin again from the original foundations (Descartes 59).” This foundation, which Descartes is certain to be the absolute truth, is “I think, therefore I am (Descartes 18).” Descartes argues that truth and proof of reality lies in the human mind, rather than the senses. In other words, he claims that the existence of material objects are not based on the senses because of human imperfection. In fact, he argues that humans, similarly to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, are incapable of sensing the true essence or existence of material objects. However, what makes an object real is human thought and the idea of that object, thus paving the way for Descartes’ proof of God’s existence. Because the senses are easily deceived and because Descartes understands that the senses can be deceived, Descartes is aware of his own imperfection. He

    Read More

  • Summary Of Descartes 'Meditations On First Philosophy'

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the senses, it is believed that the experiences before have been stored away in the mind while the person was awake, only to be recollected when the person is asleep. When Descartes addresses this, he states that it “seemed to have sensed in my dreams many things that I later realized I did not sense .” It is hard to tell which experience was caused by the individual, whether directly or not. According to Descartes, there are senses that, when experienced in dreams, are not directly caused by the person. However, the senses can tell if a person is awake by the way they feel when they are recollected. During the dreams, the senses are faded, because the senses are merely memories at this point, ghosts of what they had been at the time of conception. If the senses were real, it feels as if a wire is stuck inside your mind. If the person pays enough attention, he/she can actually feel the brain registering the sensation. Lastly, the senses, when gathered, control the understanding of

    Read More

  • Analysis of Descartes’ Mind/Body Distinction

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the ways in which Descartes attempts to prove that the mind is distinct from the body is through his claim that the mind occupies no physical space and is an entity with which people think, while the body is a physical entity and cannot serve as a mechanism for thought. [1]

    Read More

  • Descartes: Relationship Between Mind and Body

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Meditation Six entitled “Concerning the Existence of Material Things, and Real Distinction between the Mind and Body”, one important thing Descartes explores is the relationship between the mind and body. Descartes believes the mind and body are separated and they are two difference substances. He believes this to be clearly and distinctly true which is a Cartesian quality for true knowledge. I, on the other hand, disagree that the mind and body are separate and that the mind can exist without the body. First, I will present Descartes position on mind/body dualism and his proof for such ideas. Secondly, I will discuss why I think his argument is weak and offer my own ideas that dispute his reasoning while I keep in mind how he might dispute my argument.

    Read More

  • Descartes’, Spinoza’s, and Leibniz’s Response to the Mind-Body Problem

    2994 Words  | 6 Pages

    Descartes is a very well-known philosopher and has influenced much of modern philosophy. He is also commonly held as the father of the mind-body problem, thus any paper covering the major answers of the problem would not be complete without covering his argument. It is in Descartes’ most famous work, Meditations, that he gives his view for dualism. Descartes holds that mind and body are com...

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Descartes On The Theory Of Mind And Body

Open Document