Mental And Physical Ideas Of Gilbert Ryle, René Descartes, And Thomas Nagel

Gilbert Ryle, René Descartes, and Thomas Nagel help us better understand the idea regarding mental and physical phenomena. A mental phenomenon is best described as feelings, emotions, and desires that are processed in the mind, and a physical phenomenon is best described as a natural phenomenon that consists of physical properties. An example of a physical phenomenon is anything that has physical attributes or properties such as a car. A physical fact is much different from a mental fact because mental facts can only be perceived by one’s self. An example of a mental fact is love because no one but yourself can know the sensation of the love that you felt. These philosophers each have different arguments regarding different parts of physical

Descartes once said, “I think, therefore I am.” He believed this to be true whenever put forth in our own mind because of the fact that in order to think or doubt, our mind must be doing the thinking or doubting. This idea gives us enough reason that we cannot doubt our own mind. Descartes also believed and studied the idea of mind-body dualism. This is the idea that the mind and brain are two distinct things. He came up with this idea by stating that the brain is made of matter, and the mind is not physically real. The mind is not a physical property in the world, but the brain is a physical object. From this, he determined that the brain and mind are two distinct things. I agree with this statement because the mind is not dependent on information from the body. I believe that Descartes would favor the side of mental phenomena not being able to be explained by reference to physical phenomena because he believes that the mind can live without a body, and he doubts the existence of the minds of other people. I disagree with Descartes about this idea because I believe that the mind needs a body to work, but I agree that the mind is still separate from the body. This idea states that the mind and body are separate, and if they are separate, mental phenomena cannot be explained by physical

Ryle states that Descartes has made a category mistake when he explains the relationship between the mind and body. A category mistake is best described by using an example. The example Ryle uses in the textbook is, observing the building in a university and asking where the university is located. Essentially a category mistake is an error in which different things belonging to the same category are represented in different categories like the buildings and the university. The example of the university is a similar situation to how Descartes describes the mind and body. He describes the mind and body as being distinct from each other, whereas Ryle describes the mind and body as being part of each other. Ryle backs up his claim by stating the idea of “the dogma of the ghost in the machine.” He describes the ghost in the machine by saying, “Though the human body is an engine, it is not quite an ordinary engine, since some of its workings are governed by another engine inside it” (Intro to Philosophy p.369). This means that the mind is an engine inside of the body. This is an incorrect statement because the mind is not part of the body because the mind is not tangible and the body is tangible. If the body were to be effected by an observed event, the mind would not be because in order to effect the mind, one must experience an