Colossal Philosophical Works by Descartes - Essay Example

Meditations Introduction René Descartes is a well known French philosopher and mathematician who wrote excessively on theexistence of God, uncertainty of events in human life and metaphysical phenomena taking place around us. Meditations on first philosophy is one of the most prolific and colossal philosophical works by Descartes in which he has given 6 meditations discussing diverse range of topics like human body dualism, existence of God and distinction of human body and soul (Bogousslavsky, 162). The author builds an argument that nothing in this world including the five apparent senses can be relied upon because of the fact that there is always a possibility that Godly powers of evil demon is disillusioning for the human beings and that is the reason why the humans cannot just believe what they see and think. There must be a proper procedure of metaphysical verification through which the mind can get certain of what it thinks and there must be strong emphasizing proofs for his. But later on refuting has own arguments to some extent, Rene argues that since he is certain about the fact that he is thinking about something, so he can conclude on this tautology that man is something which has the ability to think. Existence of God is one of the most important and centric circle of attention for the mediator. He builds the proofs for the existence of God by building an argument based in the human mind processes. He says that the human mind of packed with the idea of existence of God and if by any means this idea is created then it must be created by God himself. Humans are weak and don’t have powers to illusion the minds so impeccably so this lead to the fact that this idea of God’s existence is injected in the human minds by the God himself which depicts the existence of God. He also proves the existence of God by “extension theory” of human body and says that extension is the basic characteristic of human body and if the human body can be extended then God can also exist(Cartesian Dualism,2013). Similarly the six meditations are focused to deplete all kinds of doubts surfacing in the theological and practical explanations of human mid and Rene gives a way through which we can get certain of all the events in the human life. He argues to get rid of all the dogmas and really believe. In this paper, one out of six meditations will be summarized and discussed. Explanation In the sixth meditation, concerning the Existence of material things, and the real Distinction between Mind and Body, Rene tries to explore the hidden phenomena in the clear distinction of one’s self with external events and object along with the strong emphasis to prove that things outside self and God exists. While discussing the credibility of mind-body dualism, meditator argues that the human behind always feel the internal needs for something that are triggered by the external factor but this cannot be felt outside the body for example he says that he can feel heat, pressure, tickling and hunger within his body but he cannot feel these physical characteristics and happening outside his body. He asks a series of question and says why is human body self centric and why we cannot feel the physical variants of other people (Descartes and Stanley, 193). The main argument which is built by the meditator is that human body and body yare not interdependent and they can exists without each other for example he says that human body has a certain characteristic of extension which is inherent in it. The human body gets extended with the passage of time but the human mind is not extendable and remains of the same size this means that this basic characteristic of extension does not co-exist in the human mind and body so human mind and exist without body and work on its own. The meditator then argues that the human mind and body are dependent upon the physical objects and substances which do not only cause the triggering of internal demands of the human mind and body, they also play a colossal role to satisfy them for example the human mind is always triggered to think on certain aspects when it is exposed to some kind of external object. The bottom line thesis statement of this meditation is based on the mind body dualism and the meditator argues that sensory perceptions are caused by the outside objects which play a key role in giving us the metaphysical experiences we have in our life. The main argument lies on the basis of idea of mind body dualism in which he says that mind and body are two different things because of different working processes, effects and dynamics. The idea of mind body dualism has a strong effect on the western philosophy and this is asserted by many of the well known philosophers throughout the historical timeline. The meditator argues that first and foremost depiction of the clear dualism of the human mind and body is the difference of basic characteristics that are interlinked for example the human mind can perceive images, desire, emotions, feelings, anger, passion and happiness whereas the human body is entitled to the physical characteristics like hunger, pleasure, pain, tickling, injuries, soothing etc. This basic differentiation between the human mind and body is the primary and paramount triggering argument of human mind and body dualism factor. But the theory of mind body dualism does not necessarily mean that there is absolutely no relation between the human mind and body. Cartesian theory of mind body dualism gives us the idea of “casual closure” that explains that there is some kind of bonding between the human body and mind. Certain triggers on the body can cause actions and thinking process of the human mind and thus mind and body cannot be considered as the relative disclosure terms. There is a strong need to emphasize the fact that human body has certain glands that are dependent upon the mind thinking process. A well known philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz uphold this theory of casual closure that mind and body are interrelated to each other and we can control the actions of the body through minds but the mind and thoughts do not have the physical existence at any level. Recently there was a study carried out by a well known philosophical analysis called David Chalmers which states that the productive efforts of mind and body are related each other (Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, 159). This study is based on the movie named “The matrix”. David gives the example of computing simulation in which the simulated bodies can do whatever they want just by manipulating the thoughts in the minds but all the simulated material beings will be ignorant of the physical location of their mind because of the fact that mind game is not taking place in the real physical world rather we have to give the meta physical arguments to prove its existence. The mind and body have separate domain of working but the causal closure makes them dependent on each in one form or the other. The Cartesian dualism is supported by a lot of philosophers throughout the history and contemporary researchers are also providing its truth through different studies. The Cartesian dualism is based upon the idea which is depicted in the meditations as ““cogito ergo sum,” “I reflect therefore I am.” This means that the mind thoughts are not vulnerable to divisibility whereas the body can be divided and broken into parts for example if human body goes through certain kind of injury then there is a chance of divisibility (Dale, 40). There are many differences of opinion regarding the Cartesian dualism for example different ontological principals support that the human mind and body are not apart at larger levels and there is a strong binding between them for example if we are tired of sitting in one place then there is an urge to stand up from that place which is triggered by mind. The mind tells us which way to move and the mind is typically able to control the mind. The meditator is a strong substance dualist and he uses the attributes of the objects as substance which is entitled with the clarification of its properties. There are a lot of rejections from the classical theorists regarding this approach but they are not true according to the modern theorists for example Berkeley rejected the idea of substantial materialism and said that there is nothing as material substances and said it as an illusion. He said that the real existence is only of mind but there are a lot of problems with the existence of the body. Nothing can be said with certainty about the meditations (Gangadean, 50). Plato and Aristotle some of the most colossal classical philosophers that argued in the favor on substantial dualism in which a clear division between the mind are body are depicted. Body is essentially extended according to the idea of dualism whereas the mind is non-extended and essentially thinking. A famous philosopher named Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Gave the idea of occasionalism, and parallelism in which he said that the idea of totally mind body dualism has some weakness and thus there is a need to amend the basic supportive arguments. He said that God is existing in the form of the most important feature of the world and he intervenes in every aspect of human activities (Hergenhahn, 185). The pre-established harmony among the human beings is not just out of the incidents rather this is already set in a pre-established manner by God. But the importance of mind is greatly inherited in the architectural aspects of meditation because of the fact that there is increased demand for the mind body interactions Plato and Aristotle showed that immortality of the soul is perfectly according to the logic and there is an increased variety of dependencies that are placed on the principal ontological aspects (Morton, 95). Conclusion The main argument about the mind and body dualism is perfectly in accordance with the laws of interactions and they are not ubiquitous in physics. The physicalism theory also says that human body and mind interactions have strong support for the mind body dualism. The Cartesian dualism is one of the most prolific philosophical aspects these days and a lot of research is carried out on the basis of this idea. Works Cited Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Bogousslavsky, Julien, François Boller, and M Hennerici. Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists. Basel: Karger, 2005. Print. Dale, John. Notes from a Sidecar: A Philosophical Travelogue Around the Selkirk Loop, British Columbia/washington/idaho. Victoria, B.C: Trafford, 2005. Print. Descartes, René, and Stanley Tweyman. Meditations on First Philosophy: In Focus. London [u.a.: Routledge, 1993. Print. Encyclopedia of Science and Religion: 1. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003. Print. Gangadean, Ashok K. Meditations of Global First Philosophy: Quest for the Missing Grammar of Logos. State Univ of New York Pr, 2009. Print. Hergenhahn, B R. An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. Morton, Peter A. A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind: Readings with Commentary. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2010. Print. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form " Read More