Descartes Theory of the Relation Between the Mind and Body - Essay Example

Descartes in his pursuit to determine what am I went into deep meditation and eliminated what he was not. According to Descartes, the body and mind are two distinct entities and distinct substances. The body and mind can be conceived clearly and distinctly different from each other. The body has a definable shape, exists within a defined space, and can be divided into number of fragments. The mind on the other hand has multi-functions but remains indivisible. Bodies are extended substances, incapable of feelings and thoughts while mind is unextended; it can think and feel. The mind and body are hence incompatible and clearly distinct from each other. Descartes believed that the connection between body and mind took place at the pineal gland located in the brain. He proposed that the mind received the data via the nerves from all parts of the body to produce sensory awareness. The unity of the body and mind consists in the mind causally interacting with the body. Descartes accepted the fact that: "Everyone feels that he is a single person with both body and thought so related by nature that the thought can move the body and feel the things which happen to it" . He believed that the mind had qualities, which distinguished it from the body. The mind was not physical and would exist even if the body was not there. He stated that the nature of the mind was to think and the nature of the body was to extend in length, breadth, and depth. He further states that the mind can imagine what it has previously perceived. It cannot imagine what the physical eyes have not seen. He also distinguished between the power of understanding and power of imagining of the mind. He argued that when the mind understands it in some ways turns towards itself and inspects one of the ideas, which are within it; but when it imagines it turns towards the body and looks at something in the body, which conforms to an idea understood by the mind and perceived by the senses. If the body exists, this is how imagination occurs. Descartes argued that he was not the body, which has a determinable shape, a definable location. Through the perception of wax he concluded that when the wax is melted, it loses its shape, taste, color, form and size but what remains is still wax. The body therefore, is, but the body was not him. He further states that bodies are not properly perceived by the senses or by the faculty of imagination, but by the intellect alone. Since they are not perceived because they are seen or touched, but only because they are understood, he concluded that there is nothing more easily or clearly apprehended than the mind. He argues that the ideas about taste, feel, pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, sadness or happiness came to him without his consent so that he could not have the sensory awareness of any object even if he wanted to. His theory is that I think, therefore I am. It is not because of the body but because of the mind that he thinks he has a being; he is a thinking thing, not the material body. He has a body, which by some special rights he calls as his, but he is not the body. He merely has a distinct idea of a body as a non-thinking thing. He firmly concludes that he is distinct from the body and can exist without it. Descartes distinguished between ordinary perception and judgment. If a substance such as wax can be understood then we can understand our body too. The self then, is not determined by what we sense of ourselves – the hands, eyes or the head – but by simply the things that one thinks. The taste, sound, color, pains are perceived through the senses and with the assistance of the memory, they reach the imagination. Descartes recognizes that the mind has a habit of believing what it perceives and hence all prior beliefs are false. In order to support this theory he discusses the senses, dreams and the evil demon hypothesis. Each of these can falsify our perception but Descartes asserts that they do not have the power to falsify what we ‘seem’ to perceive. The powers to think and exist are also deemed untouchable. He further clarifies that we have access only to our world of our ideas. To argue on the mind and body causal interaction he mentioned that raising the hand is a correspondence of mind-to-body causality; receiving sensation from light rays entering the retina is a correspondence of body-to-mind causality. This argument is not convincing and he is unable to explain it in more detail. If the mind and body are radically different, how do they causally interact? Holistic healing connects the body and mind. Any physical ailment depends upon the mental state of the person. Depression leads the body to malfunction. All physical diseases are psychosomatic disorders, which originate from the mind. Even though the manifestation of the disease may be physical, the body may be affected, but the analysis and treatment is done of the mind and not the body. While temporary relief may be provided to the body but the mental state has to be restored; the mind has to be treated to bring permanent relief to the body. This refutes Descartes’ theory that body and mind are radically different. Descartes also overlooks the fact that the mind sends impulses for the body to act. We often hear people remarking that they made a mistake because they were absent-minded or careless. What makes them absent-minded? Once the impulses are transmitted to the body the mind is free again to think something else or engage itself anywhere it wants. It immediately starts planning the next action to be taken. The body acts independently and makes mistakes but if the mind is attuned to the body then no mistakes occur. They have a very strong connection and without this connection, the body would keep making mistakes. Again, it has been observed that if the mind is involved in the act, the results are better. For example, just reading something or reading with attention makes a difference in terms of time, understanding, and results. If the body’s behaviour is not explained by the mind’s activities then how can I be held responsible for what the body does? Descartes has overlooked this and there is no explanation available to clarify this concept. If the mind can cause the body to move there has to be some connection between the two. If the body and mind are radically different, they have no properties in common. Why then, does the body function slow down with age? Descartes has not explained this. When Princess Elisabeth questioned him about the possibility of interaction between radically different substances, Descartes admitted that he had not said much about the union of the body and the mind. His assertions developed as he progressed. He mentioned about his doctrines on the primitive notions – the notion of extension (includes figure and movement), the notion of thought (conceptions of the intellect and inclinations of the will), and the notion of the union of the mind and the body. John Cottingham disagrees with this asking how a notion can be called primitive if it is dependent on a union of two elements. He further clarifies with the example that a mule can hardly be called primitive species if it comes because of the union of the horse and the ass. Cottingham chose to ignore what Descartes mentioned later that each primitive notion can only be understood by itself. Hence, Cottingham’s disagreement has no basis as we see that Descartes rectified and corrected his own statements as he progressed in his meditations. Descartes constantly admits to having a better knowledge of himself at every stage. One of the main roles of Cartesian dualism was is to found metaphysically his physical science, which is the reason Descartes concentrated on dualism. In the sixth meditation, Descartes denies that the mind is merely present in the body. John Cottingham thinks that Descartes had a trialistic theory, which has more flexibility than dualism. The Cartesian trialism emerges from the difficulty of recognizing sensation and imagination as pure mental faculties. According to Cottingham, the union is not a new substance. It is merely a modification of the dualistic theory, which suggests that trialism is a partial substitute of dualism. I disagree with Descartes’ theory I think therefore I am. He maintains that the body is not him; the body is merely a non-thinking being and it belongs to him. He seems to combine dualism and union at times. Just as the body under heat loses its form, shape, and size, the mind too vanishes. The mind is with us only as long as the body exists. The body may not be me but the mind too is not me. The mind is there for the body to function, without which the body ceases to function. The body may be physically seen but it cannot function. This is proved by the fact that mentally challenged people cannot transmit messages to the body to act and hence they are known as mad or whatever the numerous mental diseases. How can the mind explain, I think therefore I am, if it is isolated from the body? Anything that is created has to perish; both mind and body are matter; they are interdependent and perishable. Read More