Cartesian Dualism

574 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Examine the concept of dualism

Dualism is a theory that deals with two separate parts of life that are interconnected. “We human beings have always thought of ourselves as special. We all assume some contrast between the world of material things and the world of spiritual things” (Mind). Dualism, as a word, really means the two separate entities. When even just looking at the word, dual means two, so somehow there are two things that are separate but related. Philosophy is really looking at two sides of things; the physical and spiritual sides of life. There are many different ways to look at Dualism, and through all different lenses. According to the article on Cartesian dualism,
The relation between minds and bodies can be more intimate. Minds, they hold, are not entities. Minds resemble fists or laps: a mind is present when the body is organized in a particular way, and absent otherwise. Still
And with this relationship it is unclear if it is a simple one where the body affects the mind or vice versa, or much more complicated. In one of the other views of dualism, it is seen that the mind and body not only react to each other, but they influence one another:
Interactionism is the view that mind and body—or mental events and physical events—causally influence each other. That this is so is one of our common-sense beliefs, because it appears to be a feature of everyday experience. The physical world influences my experience through my senses, and I often react behaviourally to those experiences. My thinking, too, influences my speech and my actions. There is, therefore, a massive natural prejudice in favour of interactionism. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
Many people can really see how the mind and body can influence one another due the fact that through our body we have senses and those can lead to things within our minds like emotions and how the different senses can make us

Show More
Related

  • Arguments fro Dualistic Theories

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though there are many cases and arguments for Dualism concerning mind - body, such as Descartes’ substance dualism, the theory does not often have hard, physical evidence to back up such premise like science does. The continued scientific progress over the past centuries has allowed us to better understand universal truths and the functions of the mind-body that were not able to have been explained scientifically in the past. Many complex, unexplained complexities have been simplified or “reduced” through chemistry,biology, or physics. Through both comparison of arguments supporting dualist theories and counter arguments, I will prove that Dualism is a concept of the past and the continued scientific progress is inevitable and will one day allow us to understand many Dualistic explanations with hard evidence and scientific proof that we have failed to do so in the past.

    Read More

  • The Mind as a Function of the Body by Richard Taylor

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    Richard Taylor explained why the body and the mind are one, and why they are not two separate substances. In the article “The Mind as a Function of the Body”, Taylor divides his article in a number of sections and explains clearly why dualism, or the theory that the mind and the body are separate is not conceivable. In one of these sections it is explained in detail the origin of why some philosophers and people believe in dualist metaphysics. As stated by Taylor “when we form an idea of a body or a physical object, what is most likely to come to mind is not some person or animal but something much simpler, such as a stone or a marble”(133). The human has the tendency to believe a physical object as simple, and not containing anything complex. A problem with believing this is that unlike a stone or a marble a human (or an animal) has a brain and the body is composed of living cells (excluding dead skin cells, hair, and nails which are dead cells). The f...

    Read More

  • Property Dualism: The Main Issue Of The Mind-Body Problem

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    Along with an argument usually comes a counter-argument or rebuttal. The main question about the mind-body issue is how can us humans determine the interaction between mind and matter. I believe property dualism is a logic, justifiable response because it separates the mental entity from brain states, and shows how it can be related to physical substances. The knowledge argument helps convey this view because it shows how non-physical properties such as consciousness, can be proven in any given person. The problems of interaction argument is a well structured rebuttal against property dualism, mostly because it brings about the issue that the mind is not a physical entity, thus it 's not possible for a non-physical substance to interact with a physical substance. According to scientism, this statement is correct but it can be refuted through a different perspective. A dualist could respond to this and bring out multiple points. The first one being that yes, the mind does act upon or bodies and the issue is only apparent, and does not exist. A good example of this can be pain. If a human breaks a bone, the pain is brought to the mental state of the person, then passed on to the brain for processing. This is direct evidence for the argument, and shows how the mind and body can interact. A second point I would consider a rebuttal for this argument, a dualist could

    Read More

  • Logical Behaviorism Vs Dualism

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many theories about the mind and body. Many philosophers argue whether the mind and body are two separate entities or are in fact one thing. There are five main arguments for this accounts they are, dualism, logical behaviorism, methodological behaviorism, identity-theory, and lastly functualism. There are many similarities and differences between these five theories. Dualism is the main focus that I will be recounting, then comparing and contrasting it against identity-theory and logical behaviorism.

    Read More

  • Comparing Dualism, Monism And Functionalism

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a world with full of distinct materials and sprits formed by billions of live human beings, animals and plants, many people come up with distinct ideas towards existence of elements from a live form. The three theories are mainly recognised – Monism, Dualism and Functionalism are considered as three main theories. However, since those have such distinct ideas, numerous claims and arguments for prove were raised in last couple of millennia. Monism, Dualism and Functionalism have its own special traits, there is a certain idea I mostly prefer – which is Dualism due to a concrete personal belief on perception.

    Read More

  • Emotional and Rational Approaches in Christianity

    1888 Words  | 4 Pages

    Christianity is considered “two religious”, which contains “head” and “heart” (Tallon, 113). “Head” is relate to cool and rational practices of Christianity, and “heart” is the “warm and emotional” practices. Apollo, the god of reason, represents “form, structure, rational thoughts”, and Dionysian represents “enthusiasm and ectasy”(Tallon,114). Christain’s thoughts varied because they have different approaches to Christianity. Some people would interact with Christianity by having in rational ways, such as watching a sculpture of Jesus since it takes serious thinking to build a formal image of Jesus. Some people interact with Christianity by emotional approaches, for example, some christians would sing psalms which appeals to instinctive chaotic emotions. The emotions in Christianity plays an “interactive” role because it allows christians communicate with each other.

    Read More

  • The Argument of Dualism

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dualism claims that the mind is a distinct nonphysical thing, a complete entity that is independent of any physical body to which it is temporarily attached. Any mental states and activities, as well as physical ones, originate from this unique entity. Dualism states that the real essence of a person has nothing to do with his physical body, but rather from the distinct nonphysical entity of the mind. The mind is in constant interaction with the body. The body's sense organs create experiences in the mind. The desires and decisions of the mind cause the body to act in certain ways. This is what makes each mind's body its own.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Individuation and Identity In Descartes´ Philosophical View of the Mind-Body Dualism

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Surprisingly dualism has become synonymous with Rene Descartes that often times it is many just referred to by many as Cartesian dualism, as if this was the decisive line of attack to the issue. The theory behind dualism is that the mind and the body, that mind and matter, are two distinct things. Descartes well-thought-out the difficulty of the location of the mind and came to the conclusions that the mind was a completely separate entity from the body. Descartes stated that he is a subject of conscious thought and experience and thus cannot be nothing more than spatially extended matter. The fundamental nature of the human being, or the mind, are unable to be material but are obliged to be no...

    Read More

  • René Descartes and Thomas Hobbes

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    René Descartes laid the foundations for Cartesian Dualism within his Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes provides most of his dualist view within the second and sixth meditations. Dualism is the belief, or school, within philosophy of mind that the mind and body are separate. Cartesian Dualism, specifically, is essentially substance dualism, which argues that the mind and body are of separate substances, in Descartes’ case, the mind being spiritual and the body being physical. This viewpoint was a common one during Hobbe...

    Read More

  • Examples Of Substance Dualism

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Two-way interactive dualism accurately describes the connections between our bodies and minds because we can see they causally affect each other. As a result, we as human beings cannot always determine what physical state we are in, but we always know where we stand

    Read More

  • Essay On Cartesian Dualism

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    As regards materialism, the downside of this doctrine is that when materialists attempt to reduce the mental realm to the physical by saying that mental experiences are brain processes, they deny the existence of consciousness, sometimes called ‘qualia’, which is nevertheless a subjective aspect of mental experiences. According to Dualism, having different properties is not the only difference between Mental and Physical realms, a third difference between the two as mentioned earlier is qualitative. Mental happenings have subjective qualities such as what it feels like, looks like or sounds like. Descartes' view claims that material properties could never produce something as perplexing as consciousness or awareness, because such qualities

    Read More

  • Philosophy of the Mind

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Physicalism of the human mind is a doctrine that states that the world is ‘entirely physical’, and can be described in various ways. One way it can be described is that minds, mental properties and mental processes are visibly not physical phenomena. Terms such as “mind,” “thinking,” and “feeling” do not play in the theories of fundamental physics. For example, in this slim sense of “physical,” a lung is not a physical object, inhalation is not a physical property and diffusion is not a physical process; as in the terms “lung,” “inhalation,” and “diffusion” do not have a role in the theories of fundamental physics. Acknowledging that mental phenomena are not physical in this slim sense is not vastly acknowledging. However, certainly there is an open sense of the word “physical” in which a lung, inhalation, and diffusion are certainly physical phenomena. Physicalism of the human mind proclaims that human minds, mental properties and mental processes are physical in this open sense of “physical.” A clear open sense of “physical” is contentious in the philosophy of the mind. A common view is: “An individual item (e.g., object, property-instance, or process) is physical in the broad sense if, and only if, it meets either of two conditions: (1) it’s an item of a kind that can in principle be defined in the distinctive vocabulary of fundamental physics; or (2) it’s a physically realized item of a functional kind.” The first condition is straight forward, but the second condition evidently demands clarification. Accordingly, a “functional” kind of thing is one in which its existence entails in the actuality of “something or other” that encounters a convinced measurement where the structure and functioning of the “something or other” does not matter as long as it encounters the functioning in request. For instance, a lung is a functional kind of object in my sense. Therefore,

    Read More

  • First Impressions

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...from one another (Agno, 2011). Introverts get their energy internally and extroverts get their energy from being with other people (Agno, 2011). It is all part of human behavior.

    Read More

  • Plato's Soul Body

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    Agreeing to most substance dualists, intellect and body are able of causally influencing each other. This shape of substance dualism is known as interactionism. Two other shapes of substance dualism are occasionalism and parallelism. These speculations are to a great extent relics of history. The occasionalist holds that intellect and body do not connected., They may appear to when, for illustration, we hit our thumb with a pound and a excruciating and upsetting sensation happens. Occassionalists, like Malebranche, attest that the sensation is not caused by the pound and nerves, but instep by God. God employments the event of natural happenings to make suitable encounters. Concurring to the parallelist, our mental and physical histories are facilitated so that mental occasions show up to cause physical occasions (and bad habit versa) by ethicalness of their worldly conjunction, but intellect and body no more connected than two clocks that are synchronized so that the one chimes when hands of the other point out the modern hour. Since this phenomenal arrangement of harmonies could not conceivably be due to simple coincidence, a devout clarification is

    Read More

  • True Self Essay

    1756 Words  | 4 Pages

    The theory of the True Self and the False Self, developed by D.W. Winnicott, allows people to understand that these two entities live within all people, allowing them to display and cover themselves depending on environmental factors (Yoshino 554). The shadow that covers the True Self is the False Self. This entity that lives within us, sharing its existence with the True Self, is brought to light according to environmental circumstances. These environmental circumstances may include normative gender roles, religious expectations, traditions and even mainstream logic. The ideal health of a person, according to Winnicott, is of a dominant True Self and a recessive False Self. Unlike genes, these two can be controlled gradually by one’s choice of how much and how little exposure of the True S...

    Read More

More about Cartesian Dualism

Open Document