Descartes contends that the mind and body interact with each other. For example, when a person steps on the sharp end of a nail, nerves that are dispersed in the foot deliver the message of invasion of a force that has just entered to the brain through the tibia, the thigh, the loins, the back, and the neck. Then finally the mind conceives “hurt”. Another example, when a person reads a romance novel and becomes sadly affected by the death of a hero in the novel, this feeling affects this person to, even without any physical harm, tear. Therefore it looks as the mind and body are two different things.
Descartes also contends that I am my mind not my body. For example, when I read a newspaper, it’s not the body that is reading the newspaper but it’s the mind that is reading it. Because existence of a person solely depends on his mind, his body does not represent himself.
Although it seems conceptually reasonable that minds and bodies are two totally distinct things, it also looks physiologically reasonable to say that there is no mind at all. For example, a neurosurgeon dissects a dead body’s head and takes out the brain from the dead body. He puts the brain on the table and seeks for the part where it recognizes and distinguishes different colors. He, then, finds the spot and examines it for a while and then touches it. It seems as if though there is mind in the brain, but how can totally two distinct matters reside in the same place? And interact? Everything is composed of matter and energy and can be explained by physical laws. All human activity can be understood as the natural behavior of matter according to mechanical laws and therefore thinking is merely a complex form of behaving. It looks more logical to see that thalamus in this part of the brain recognizes different colors and report the result of optical transmissions to the headquarters, and consequently, other parts of body move or react according to the headquarters’ command. Therefore, the above example of a neurosurgeon cannot be explained by the mind and body distinction but can be clearly explained by the physical laws.
Here I would like to analyze the mind and body distinction with a different approach. Mathematicians say that a line exists in the first dimension, a plane in the second dimension, and a three dimensional objects in the third dimension. For example, a movie screen we see at a theater is in the second dimension because it is just a plane, but things that are coming out of the movie screen like a 3-D movie is said to be in the third dimension. Mathematically, bodies reside in the third dimension where objects are seen in every possible angle but constrained to time, whereas minds are in the fourth dimension where objects can be seen in all angles and can freely travel through the time dimension (past, present, and future), but because of time variable is in the fourth dimension, three dimensional observers can’t see objects in the fourth dimension. A three-dimensional observer can only see a fourth-dimensional object if time variable becomes zero, but the time variable can not be zero because our minds are affected by some constantly changing time variable t. Bodies change in time due to many reasons: hard work-out, sleeping too much, eating too much, and etc, and bodies are very sensitive to surrounding environments such as living in a house full of dirt will make a person’s body in bad condition. However, minds are not affected by these causes. Minds become ripe in knowledge but don’t get sick nor age. Minds can go back in time when it was 1960s or 70s. For example, a person named Josh goes to 24-hour-fitness and works out. Josh lifts a weight and suddenly feels a pain in his bicep. Josh puts down the weight and thinks about the time when he had no problem in his bicep until he was stabbed in the bicep by a robber in 1989. Josh, then, thinks how his life would have turned out if he was not stabbed by that robber. Here Josh’s mind traveled back to 1989 but his body remained in present day, and his mind went back in time and saw another type of life that he had if he was not stabbed by that robber. It is clear here that minds and bodies are dimensionally different. Therefore there must exist mind that is totally different from body.
Second, minds exist in human beings. Let’s assume all human beings are without minds instead only the physical brains direct our actions. In a physical sense, humans store information taken from outside and put into their brains. Here is a problem then, how can one explain a person making a decision not for the benefit of himself but for the group that he is in based on the information he has? This is certainly the area where humans are significantly distinct from machines. Although Machines have electrical brains called RAM and ROM that can store information, machines do not have conscience like humans. Although highly sophisticated computers can imitate the actions or thinking process of humans, they don’t have conscience. Because of the fact that the machines only function according to the calculated optimum result of the various information that they have received from outside world, machines don’t understand the meaning of having a true heart, generous heart, or anything.
I had described that the mind and body are totally distinct. I added more explanations to the Descartes’ argument: minds are totally distinct from bodies. I used mathematical methods to compare minds and bodies that minds are dimensionally different from bodies. I argued that minds exist in human beings. I showed that humans have minds whereas highly sophisticated computers can imitate human actions and thinking process but don’t have conscience.
In modern days, people tend to look more for physical explanations rather than mental or spiritual explanations. It is, in my opinion, quite absurd to conclude that everything in this world involves only physical substances because the fact that human beings are simply too complicated to say that we are only physical beings. There is something called “Conscience” besides knowledge in our brain. This conscience pushes us to do the right thing when, in fact, it may not be the wise thing to do in certain situations. This is nothing like any information that is kept in our brain. This is something besides our physical stuff but rather mental or spiritual stuff that employs itself in our decision to act. Therefore, we should believe that the mind and the body exist and are totally distinct but interact with each other instead of believing that everything is physical.
