PHILOSOPHY
I Think, Therefore I Am ELLA BARKER-GOLDIE
as two different things. As one has a clear and distinct idea of oneself as a non-extended thinking thing, and of one’s body as an extended non-thinking thing, they can exist apart from each other, and thus, one is distinct from their body. Despite the mind and body being separate, Descartes still suggested a two-way casual interaction between the two, meaning that the events happening to one can affect the other, at the point of the pineal gland. This concept of substance dualism is an important feature to modern Christianity. 1 Corinthians states that ‘the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable’, indicating that the body will perish at death, whereas the soul will persist to the afterlife. Furthermore, Christians believe that God thinks, but has no body, so it is logical for them to hold that the soul or thinking self can also be independent of physical nature. The existence of the soul, therefore, allows for connection with God, a metaphysical and non-physical being, through prayer. Cartesian dualism, however, is subjected to numerous criticisms, the most prominent for me being the challenges from neuroscience. Neuroscience has highlighted the way in which thoughts, emotion, and experiences, can be explained through brain activity, and that the self or soul is just a way of describing and explaining neural activity when connected to the rest of a living body. It maintains that when
The mind-body problem examines the relationship between the mind and body; the relationship between mental and physical properties. The debate aims to answer whether the soul and body are one, inseparable and intertwined thing, a monistic view, or if they are two distinct and separate parts – mind and matter – a dualistic view. Descartes argued for substance dualism, concluding this line of thought from 3 proofs, the first being the argument from doubt. It states that the only thing one can entirely be sure of is the existence of my one’s own mind, as the existence of the body can be doubted, as the senses can be deceiving, but your mind cannot be doubted, as it is doing the thinking. Therefore the ‘mind’ must be separate from your body. To quote Descartes: “I think, therefore I am”. Descartes’ second proof, the argument from Divisibility and Non-Divisibility, declared that ‘the body is by its very nature always divisible, while the mind is utterly indivisible’, and because the two are radically different, they must be separate things. The third, and final proof, is the argument from clear and distinct perception. It states that whatever one clearly and distinctly perceives as two different things can be created by God
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