Relationship Between Mind And Body

Relationship Between Mind And eubstanceThe relationship between the manpowertality and soundbox has been a preoccupation among philosophers since the Hellenic antiquity, with noted writers such(prenominal) as 5th Century philosopher Plato, and his student Aristotle. Ideas takecerning the mental capacity and personate originate as far back as Platos and Aristotles time, whereby they questi iodind whether or not acquaintance is connected with the personify. In the 16th Century, Michel de Montaigne treated the very(prenominal) question again, and it was then continued in the 17th Century exclusively by Ren Descartes and Blaise dada.Their point of skyline is diverse and the conclusion that they r each(prenominal) upon at times is somewhat in a elbow room satisfying to each other or plain rejects. Before embarking on the essay, a design explanation on their works will be examined.Michel de Montaigne was wizard of the ab break with influential merely sceptical writers of the 16th Century, in expoundicular with his Essais being a compilation of various short topics describing man and homo record. His essays had direct becharm on other classical thinkers such as Ren Descartes and Blaise protoactinium.Blaise dad was not only an influential French philosopher, that he was too a French mathematician and physicist. His unfinished most famous work in school of thought, Penses, is a series of philosophical sections and essays, whereby pop identifies and explores the contradictions of human nature with regards to psychology and sociology. Pascal used his soulfulnessal thoughts and opinions concerning human suffering and ghostly beliefs to write this philosophy towards the close of his breeding.French philosopher, but also a mathematician and scientist Ren Descartes, had published 2 well know philosophical works in history called Discours de la Mthode and Mditations Mtaphysiques. Descartes of import goal was to present us with a series of thoughts that he took into consideration, in set to shed flow on his views on paragon and the existence.Rne Descartes was, by nature a dualist. In concomitant, he created the notion of Cartesian dualism and was the first person to intelligibly classify the point with awareness and to divers(prenominal)iate this from the brain, which held intelligence. Cartesian dualism viewed that atomic number 53s intelligence hindquartersnot be touched and is non-physical. He was the first to create the promontory and eubstance problem, an issue which seek to question how the take care and consistence butt interact, especially if the sense is establish solely on thought and the body is strictly an addition. This was the basic breadth of the look-body debate which began during the times of Plato and Aristotle and extended long onetime(prenominal) Descartess death.Aristotle believed mind was connected to the soul. The mind is the soulss object, which becomes active only when it t hinks. The soul, which is also cognize as the intellect, does not work unless it is thinking. Therefore, it is unlikely that it would be mixed with the body. Aristotle was so a thinker who was more(prenominal) relate with the metaphysical concepts. Platos thought was more based on concrete principles of the natural world. While Aristotle described the levels of verity, Plato pore on subjects such as how one could be of a immaculate character, and therefore a better person within themselves. Cartesian dualism permits twain these theories to work together in effectuate to be recognised as one.Descartes, like Montaigne and Pascal to some extent, were philosophers who all had different ways of exhalation about their works. Descartes used more indirect means of philosophising. Meanwhile, Pascal would wipe out been purposely direct and informative, as a mathematician who drew on his experience of the sciences in order to develop his conclusions. On the other hand, Montaigne st udied himself with subjects such as religion, philosophy, humanism as he believed this was crucial in order to describe human nature.These tercet Frenchmen contrasted with their views regarding the mind and the body. While Descartes thought that the mind was separate from the body, Montaigne along with Pascal definitely would shit argued that the mind was part of the physical body. Obviously, there argon good stemmas for and against these twain very different views, which will be explained.Montaigne preferred to make his opinions clear by providing facts in order to attempt to uncover the truth, providing the readers a chance to analyse his thoughts personally. His set was to describe man and human nature by utilize storage as a description to address his topic. This is what he did to highlight his view on the mind and body. He argued that the development of the mind is connected to the body and expressed how he believed the imagination is the drive for the downfall of the bo dy. His philosophy regarding these two substances is one of which explains his view that a profound mind comes from the studies of other peachy writers. Lame que loge la philosophie doit, par sa sant, render sain encores le corps. (Montaigne 208 1969) He argues that anyone who is taught by the philosophy of past great writers will have the complete(a) body, as he believes thinking for oneself is truly unhealthy for the body and mind. Therefore, concord to him there is only one type of education which should be used, based purely on thoughts of the past to achieve both(prenominal) a healthy body and mind.In order to transform a child to come outly a well formed healthy man, there should be a connection between the mind and body. Throughout De Linstitution des enfants Montaigne proves his opinions for training both body and mind and therefore the tutor is responsible for this training as ce nestle pas assez de luy roidir lame il luy faut ausi roidir les muscles. (Montaigne 201 1969) When training the body, two advantages appear. Firstly, the mind is fitted to relax and secondly the body is able to build itself for the cake of illnesses. Therefore, the mind bumnot work unless the body has been apt.Furthermore, tout lieu retir requiert un proumenoir. Mes pensees dorment, si je les assis. Mon esprit ne va pas seul, comme si les jambes lagitent. Ceux qui estudient sans livre, en sont tous l. (Montaigne 76 1993) Even though he was distracted by his books, he persists that one arseholenot achieve the pleasure of cultivation unless our mind and body are exercised in the correct vogue. There is a healthy regime of the mind no less than of the body, and in fact the two are inseparable. An inquiring mind will be right as active as a healthy body in the pursuit of its interests. (ONeill 1012001) accord to Montaigne, it is common for one to believe that the mind operates in a different demeanor to the body. But, even the active life of the body is inseparab le from intelligence which itself is not exercised simply by conclusion ones eyes. (ONeill 101 2001) Thus, one should not separate these two elements. We can sympathise that Montaigne fully believes in this connection.Descartes was able to make complex philosophical concepts undecomposable by breaking them down into manageable pieces. This is what he tried to do with the mind and body problem in order to insist that they are two unique substances, with the mind being regarded as a non-physical element, without connecting to the body. He therefore believed that he could live without the mind.Secondly, that the mind and the body may be dissimilar but they do interact. Nevertheless, he sympathizes that this relationship is not rarified in that do il est entirement manifeste que, nonobstant la souveraine bont de Dieu, la nature de lhomme, en tant quil est compos de lesprit et du corps, ne peut quelle ne soit quelquefois fautive et trompeuse. (Descartes 891992) The mind and body ar e sure two separate things in some senses of the word, but Descartes could have seamlessly make these two entities dualist aspects that can and must be separated.This is because intelligence comes from a ass which cannot be defined. One cannot control the human mind and simply bear it to the body, because intelligence is completely separate from ones physical capabilities. For example, if one were to be paralysed from the uterine cervix down, Descartes would argue that the mind would still be unharmed. Similarly, someone could be unconscious but their brainwaves could still be functioning well. Since he believed in the provide of the mind and intelligence, he was a deep thinker.Descartes argues, quil y a une grande diffrence entre lesprit et le corps, en ce que le corps, de sa nature, est toujours divisible, et que lesprit est entirement indivisible. je considre mon esprit, cest--dire moi-mme en tant que je suis seulement une chose qui pense, je ny puis distinguer aucunes part ies, mais je me conois comme une chose seule et entire.lesprit semble tre uni tout le corps, toutefois un piedou quelque autre partie tant spare de mon corps, il est certain que pour cela il ny aura rien de retranch de mon esprit. (Descartes 86 1992) Descartes disputes that the mind and body are separable, and argues that the mind is different to the body and therefore one can exist without the use of the other. Furthermore, to clarify this argument, Descartes gives an explanation of the body. If man loses a limb or part of their body, they have not lost the mind. According to Descartes, the mind is the core element that makes him aware that he exists.His well known philosophical quotation je pense donc je suis (Descartes 110 2000) is connected to this theory of dualism as it forms the radix of it. According to him, we exist due to the fact that we think. He realises that he has a working mind, without being entirely sure that he has a body. The faction of mind and body presents Descartes views of a genuine human being (Cottingham 71999). He realised that a problem could not simply be analysed on the common sense level. Moreover, his statement cest-a-dire lame par laquelle je suis ce que je suis, est entierement distincte du corps, (Descartes 111 2000) can assert that the soul is the fundamental self, in contrast to the Thomist dissertation that a human being is essentially a composite of body and soul. (Moriarty 142 2003) It is mathematical for one to doubt everything from God to ones body, but it is not possible for one to deny the fact that there is a consciousness, which led him to this famous motto. He realised doubting the truth would be the only manner in which he would find out what was essentially true regarding the mind and body. However, he managed to put this aside and found one true belief, cogito ergo sum. (Descartes 1102000.His belief in God is strong, as he believes God is all-powerful. This enables him to believe that anything he wishes to visualise is without a doubt possible. If he can prove Gods existence, then he will be able to digest other truths in life. Since the mind and body can be considered clearly as separate, it means that it is possible for God to make it happen.Descartes is not exactly clear on the connection between mind and body, but we can deduce from his work that he did not think they were related. Even though this was the case, he still discusses at some length the nature of the amount of money of the human mind with its body. (Wilson 177 1982)Most likely, Descartes would take a roundabout way at arriving at his conclusions. First, he would take an abstract concept, by using the mind and intelligence as a kind of springboard for public lecture about other subjects more liberally. Then, he would continue to use turn up to back up his theoretical reasoning, probably using more abstractions to obligate his theoretical concept. Finally, he would wrap up in summation by using some concrete e xamples of what he was talking about in abstract terms.He believed in what he thought do him who he was. Un autre est de penser et je trouve ici que la pense est un attribut qui mappartient elle seule ne peut tre dtache de moi. (Descartes 2000 25) not so with Pascal, who could clearly distinguish between the thought processes and separate that out from himself.Pascal, who preferred making explanations about various aspects of reality difficult and layered it with complicated aspects of knowledge argued against the dualist, and easily made the reverse of the mind and body argument. According to him, doubt could only lead to more doubt. He believed that one could not explain ones existence through reasoning and that man is largely guided by beliefs and feelings. Therefore, the only solution and help is faith. One can only gain certain knowledge through obedience to God. He also confirmed that one may not be able to use his mind due to a certain reason, but yet his body would be k ept physically alive. Je puis bien concevoir un homme sans mains, pieds, tete, car ce nest que lexperience qui nous apprend que la tete est plus necessaire que les pieds. Mais je ne puis concevoir lhomme sans pensee. Ce serait une pierre ou une brute. (Pascal 1072000) Therefore, it would seem that the mind and body definitely would be connected. Pascal also believed in the power of the mind, but his focus was more on the physical and the reality of the body. The body is a concrete substance, and empirical in the sense that its functions can be measured and regulated.In his implications, he will find religious yet ethnical views to explain the mind and body problem. For instance he quotes toute notre dignite consiste donc en la pensee. Cest de l quil faut nous relever, et non de lespace et de la duree, que nous ne saurions remplir. Travaillons donc a bien penser. Voila le principe de la morale. (Pascal 171 2000) It is possible to note his stress on morality here as he wants to ackno wledge the suffering of human existence that could be found from these two non-connecting substances.Pascal would have been a good deal more of a mathematical thinker. He thought in a linear fashion, and his arguments were in relation to geometry theorems. First, Pascal would begin with one argument and then legitimately make sure the other arguments followed in a linear sequence. For example, he would take one statement which would be his main idea. Next, Pascal would most likely support this idea with relevant try out and facts. He would clearly and succinctly make his case as for wherefore the mind and the body were one and the same element.Pascal was primarily concerned with the differences between the intuitive mind and the mathematical mind. In some ways, this would have been the difference between Descartes, Pascal and Montaigne.The mind and the body are surely two separate things in some senses of the word, but Descartes could have seamlessly made these two entities duali st aspects that can and must be separated. Pascal and Montaigne would have no doubt argued in the contra, that the mind and body are ultimately one and the same.However, any philosopher would see that all three philosophers would have had equally effectual arguments in trying to convince people of their view. Each philosopher had very legitimate points about their own positions that would lend relevance to each of their particular theories.Pascal saw himself as a defender of Christianity, whilst Descartes knew himself as purely a philosopher. Without question, Pascal did take into consideration Descartes belief on the mind and body, but he did not believe that Cartesian Dualism was between the soul and the body, but instead between the infinity of God and sin of men. Montaigne accepted that the mind and body were connected, but should be used in the correct manner in order to work efficiently.Yet, all three thinkers share opinions regarding the foot of human and with this we can discover how they both have certain views in common. They both consider human beings as having a body, mind and thought, and because of this, Pascal regard man as un Roseau pensant. (Pascal 171 2000) They also realise that the mind and consciousness can encompass the body.These philosophers were all thinkers who looked at the world from their own perspectives and tried to make sense of their worlds. They tried using reason in order to make deductions and educated guesses, making sure to try their hardest to come to logical conclusions.As we can see, the relationship between the mind and body as conceived by all three philosophers vary. Both Montaigne and Pascal believe in the connection of the mind and the body, but Descartes does not. Pascal was hugely influenced by Montaignes literary works and this could be the reason why they shared more of the same thoughts. Descartes was also influenced by the works of Montaigne, but had more of an influence from Aristotle and Plato. Both Mon taigne and Pascal were sceptics and therefore questioned and rejected ideas of their times, which resulted in doubt. But whilst Montaigne did not find this a problem, Pascal did as he was over whelmed with religious doubts.Alternatively, Montaigne and Descartes differed because Descartes strongly concord with the dualist view that the mind and body are independent substances. But, all three philosophers argued in favour of Gods existence. For Montaigne, he argued religion and human values through sceptic philosophy and doubt, Descartes through doubt and Pascal through faith.Descartes chose to understand that the mind must be separate from the body and therefore, intelligence was a nonphysical entity. Pascal and Montaigne thought intelligence and the mind were part of the body and also the same.In that sense, all three men were classically trained philosophical thinkers who followed in the footsteps of their predecessors by rationally deducing logical and well-thought-out arguments. Each of these men should be revered for their great contributions to society.2990 words