Descartes Human Intelligence Analysis

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For thousands of years, the nature of human intelligence has been debated, discussed and examined. Descartes’ argument that it is not bodies that think, but an immaterial substance that exists non-spatially is problematic because it vies thinking from a flawed, incomplete understanding of the human brain and its functions. Descartes would defend his claim by arguing that the thinking soul connects to the body through the brain, and while influenced by the states of the brain, exists outside of our bodies, however that would still be ignoring years of study and scientific evidence exploring the brain. The argument that the soul is what thinks, and would therefore makes artificial intelligence impossible is highly flawed.
Summary
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One primary concern is our perceptions of physical objects, which according to Descartes, exist in the immaterial. He reasons that all knowledge or experience of the world exists first in the mind, and that all physical experiences prove the mind’s existence. While an experience may have been false, such as a dream, the experience of the mind did surely exist, further proving the existence of the mind, separate of the physical world. (Descartes, 1983, p. 7) Descartes reasons that all things other than one’s own mind can be doubted, even God, and that thinking is the only thing that can be known to …show more content…

These are substantial deficiencies, and leave many questions unanswered, or even acknowledged. Any defense or response to objections will ultimately revolve around Descartes’ main views, without being fully able to address concerns. Descartes’ views on intelligence revolve around an immaterial soul that connects to the body and thinks, feels, and perceives. He offers no real evidence for this view, aside from his own logic, and often uses the existence of God to fill in holes in his logic. I reject the argument that immaterial souls are responsible for thought. Even if I were to accept that as being true, I would reject the implication that an artificial intelligence could not think because of a lack of a

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