‘Nature’ according to Descartes has taught him unequivocal truths. One of these truths is that “I have a body, and that when I feel pain there is something wrong with the body, and that when I am hungry or thirsty the body needs food or drink, and so on.” Descartes, however, reasons in the discourse that it is possible to doubt the existence of body, but not his own existence as a conscious thinking being. This argument seems erroneous. Suppose, being ignorant of chemistry, it is possible for me to doubt the existence of carbohydrates, but I cannot doubt that this potato in front of me exists. Does it follow that the potato could exist entirely independently of carbohydrates?
The mind according to Descartes is unextentended and indivisible. Human beings are by nature “a thing that thinks”. But what is this? “A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines and has sensory perceptions…”. The mind does not inhabit space, it is not governed by usual natural laws and thus can only be ‘seen’ by itself. Dualism centres on this notion of a non-physical substance, a ‘mind’.
The body and mind according to Descartes are distinct substances, which interact with each other but remain separate. Descartes talks of nature and how its truths have effected his judgement of the world. Sensations of pain, hunger, thirst and so on mean that he is not merely present in his body as a sailor is present in a ship. Descartes states that the mind does not merely observe physical damage to the body, in the way a ship’s captain would, but it experiences it itself. The two are connected through some system designed to do this. Descartes himself considered that the two entities were connected through the pineal gland, which sent and received messages to/from the body. If this is the case, then one cannot consider a mind to both be an entirely separate entity to the body, and not be merely like the pilot. Descartes’ view is open to the criticism that was elegantly expressed by Ryle when he referred to it as “the ghost in the machine”. He claimed that it suggests there is a complex visible system called the physical body, which has as an engine an invisible complex, called the mind, which takes on a spiritual form, ever-present inside the body. Indeed, Ryle is of the opinion that this form of Cartesian dualism is a category mistake, the meaning of which is explained by a simile with a tourist visiting Oxford, seeing the colleges and the libraries, and then asking where the university is. This is to say that Ryle considers the treatment by Cartesian dualists of mental events as separate to the other aspects of the body, rather than seeing them as just one part of the processes of the human. There is thus no categorical difference between mental processes and physical ones.
Descartes comes to the conclusion that he is more than a “thinking thing”, for if the mind and body were separate he would not feel pain when the body was hurt. He would instead just see the damage by intellect, as the sailor would see damage within the ship. Descartes concludes there is a great difference between the mind and the body. The body, by nature is divisible, whereas the mind is indivisible. So when a limb from the body is removed, nothing whatsoever is taken from the mind.
This raises many subsequent problems. If the mind and body are so distinct, how then can they interact so closely? For example when one has a dry throat one wishes to drink water to quench their thirst. Reason tells us that mind and body are distinct yet daily experiences tell us otherwise. Mind and body it seems are united in many ways.
As a result of Descartes two main theories on mind and body have been created, these are dualism and monism. Dualism was the approach favoured by Descartes, and has at its core the indivisibility of the soul and the clear distinction between the soul (of which the mind is a part) and the body. A monistic approach to the mind/body problem is the belief that they are not distinct, and that the mind and the body are part of the same thing. This usually takes a materialistic form-the mind is a physical substance in the same way the heart or lungs are.
Dualism can further be subdivided into two types: Substance Dualism and Property Dualism. Substance dualism holds the notion that the mind is a non-physical entity temporarily attached to the brain. It holds that mental states and activities are wholly non-physical. Property Dualism, however, holds that the properties of the brain are possessed by no other kind of physical object and cannot be explained solely in terms of physical matter. Properties such as love, therefore, need a separate mental science to explain them.
René Descartes first crystallized the concept of mind and body in the seventeenth century. Descartes claims that through his senses in his body parts he can experience pain hunger and thirst. Hunger pangs, for example, in his stomach make him want to eat. Despite such ‘unions’ between body and mind Descartes maintains his notion that they are totally separate. To aid him in his conclusion he uses the example of the phantom limb. Here despite the limb being amputated pain is still felt in that particular part of the body. This, therefore, causes doubt and somewhat confusion. Can one be totally certain that when you feel pain it is from a certain part of the body and not just in your mind. Other possible reasons for the mind and body being separate are the states one is in when they are either asleep or awake. According to Descartes sensory experience when one is awake or when one is asleep are similar. When you are asleep, you don’t believe that what you perceive comes from things outside yourself, so why should you believe they do when you are awake?
The question of mind and body must be considered metaphysically, this is to the extent that science either has not or, perhaps, cannot provide adequate answers. The relationship between the mind and the body is too complex to make crude generalisations and concise conclusions. Descartes considered the mind, whilst being connected to the body through the pineal gland was able to send and receive data through the use of ‘animal spirits’ and the nervous system. By today’s standards this understanding is flawed, but much of the current theories are still either dualist ideas similar to this, or materialist. One must not overlook the work of Descartes when analysing this complex field. One must tread with care however as subsequent theories have ultimately carried the risk of determinism.
Bibliography
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Cottingham, J. 1996, Western Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
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Harrison-Barbet, 1990. Mastering Philosophy, Hampshire, Palgrave.
- http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Table.html
- http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Descartes.html
- http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/mindbody.html
- http://www.fred.net/tzaka/mindbody.html
Cottingham, J. 1996, Western Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Cottingham, J. 1996, Western Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Cottingham, J. 1996, Western Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Cottingham, J. 1996, Western Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
