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THE PROBLEM OF RES COGITANS(mind) AND RES EXTENSA (body) ACCORDING TO RENE DESCARTES

PREFACE

Rene Descartes was one of the influential philosophers of the seventeenth century, the modern era. He was very famous in metaphysics, epistemology and mathematics. His words, “Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)” earned good reputation for him among the philosophers of his time as well as the present. He belongs to the rational school, which holds the primacy of reason over senses. He is well known for his Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am), method of doubt, Cartesian coordinate system, Cartesian dualism and ontological argument for the existence of Christian God.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTERS

1.	MIND AND BODY

1.1.	Mind According to Descartes 1.1.1.	Kinds of Faculty 1.1.2.	Functions of Mind 1.1.3.	Location of Mind 1.1.4.	Innate Ideas 1.1.5.	Properties of Mind

1.2.	Body According to Descartes 1.2.1.	Composition of Body 1.2.2.	Blood 1.2.3.	Animal Spirits 1.2.4.	Origin of Body 1.2.5.	Functions of the Body 1.2.6.	Senses 1.2.6.1. Fibres 1.2.6.2. Kinds of Sensations

1.2. 	THE PROBLEM OF MIND AND BODY

2.1. 	Distinction between Mind and Body 2.1.1. 	Unity of Nature Vs Unity of Composition 2.1.2. 	Demonstration of Distinction of Mind and Body 2.2. 	Substantial Union 2.3. 	Pineal Gland 2.4. 	Interaction of Mind and Body 2.4.1. 	Active and Passive Functions 2.4.2. 	Formation of Motion 2.6. 	Intermingling of mind and body

3.	CRITICAL ANALYSIS

3.1. 	The Ideas of Mind and Body 3.2. 	Independent Existence of Mind 3.3. 	Innate Ideas 3.4. 	Body: Just a Machine 3.5. 	Origin of the Body 3.6. 	Pineal Gland 3.7. 	Interaction

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION

Dualism is the view that there are, indeed, at least two kinds of realities: the physical and the mental realities. The physical reality is characterized by measurable properties such as weight, location, size, and color and the mental is characterized by nonphysical and immeasurable qualities such as immateriality. Dualism is a very old tradition, having many proponents.

Some scholars claim that Plato (428–348 B.C.E.) was the first to make a sharp distinction between the mind and body. For Plato, the relationship between the mind and body is not an ideal one. For him, the body is the "prisoner" of the mind or soul, which is the true person. In death, the body and soul are separated. Although Plato is not the "father" of dualism, certainly he provided a far more extended treatment and defense of the doctrine than anyone who came before him. The Platonic dualism had great influence on Christian thinking.

We can say that Christianity, for the most part, adopted a form of Platonic dualism as its official view, which went more or less unchallenged until Aquinas (1225–1274) who followed Aristotle's line of thinking on the mind-body relationship. Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) disagreed with Plato, his mentor and teacher, and provided a closer relationship between the mind and the body, claiming that the soul is the "form" of the body.

In modern philosophy, it is René Descartes (1596–1650) who is most associated with dualism of mind and body. Descartes’ philosophy radically separates the mental and the physical, by claiming that they are, indeed, two very different kinds of substances. In his Meditations, he writes: There is a great difference between the mind and the body, inasmuch as the body is by its very nature always divisible, while the mind is indivisible. For when I consider the mind or myself as far as I am a thinking thing, I am unable to distinguish any parts within myself. By contrast, there is no corporeal or extended thing that I cannot think of which in my thought I cannot easily divide into parts; and this very fact makes me understand that it is divisible. This one argument would be enough to show me that the mind is completely different from the body, even if I did not already know as much from other considerations.

The central point of Descartes’ metaphysics is the distinction between mind and body or in other words, the dualism of mind and body. According to Descartes, God created them both. Mind and body are distinct substances. The mind, res cogitans is a complete substance, non-corporal, immaterial, indivisible and distinct from body. The essence of the mind is ‘thought’ alone. It is a thinking thing. Mind can exist independent of body. Mind does not occupy space.

The body, res extensa has a determinable shape and a definable location and can occupy space. It can be perceived by touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell. It can be moved in various ways. The body has no power to move by itself but it can only be moved by whatever else encounters it. Body is a substance and the essence of body is extension alone.

The relationship between the two substances is that the mind stands to the body as mover and the body to the mind as instrument to agent. The body is the vehicle of mind. The definition of man is a mind, which makes use of a body. Mind and body cannot join forces completely and interpenetrate each other. They are too different from each other. One might say that they are worlds apart.

If the mind and body were able to interact, intermingle and to have union, how would they do so? How can they unite? What is the distinction between them? How is the union between the mind and the body achieved? How does the body affect the mind? How does the mind affect the body?

CHAPTER 1

MIND AND BODY

The problem of mind and body is dealt all most by all philosophers in the history of philosophy. They try to bring out their own understanding and ideas of the mind and body. Just like them, Descartes also tries to give his notions about the problem of the mind and the body. Here, the first chapter tries to give clarity of Descartes’ ideas about the mind and the body. This chapter lays foundation and reveals the basic notions about the mind and the body. The understanding of Descartes of the mind and body is explicated and dealt elaborately in this chapter in order to understand the problem between the mind and the body.

1.1.	 Mind According to Descartes The central point of Descartes’ metaphysics is the distinction between mind and body. For Descartes, it is God, who created them both. The ideas of mind and body are separate. They are distinct substances. The mind is a complete substance. It is called res cogitans. The essence of the mind is ‘thought’ alone. It exists by itself. It is a thinking thing. For Descartes, mind is a non-corporal substance, that is distinct from the material or bodily substance. For him, substance is anything, which has independent existence. Consciousness is the essential property of the mind-substance. Mind can exist independent of body.

Mind does not occupy space. The mind cannot be associated with a position in space like that of the body. The mind and the body only persist through time, since thinking takes time. Mind has a strange implication for the continuity of man’s existence for it could be that where man totally to cease from thinking and man should totally cease to exist. Mind is consciousness. If there is no consciousness, we will not exist. The mind is conjoined with the body according to the law of immutability of nature, according to which everything remains in its present state, so long, as it is not disturbed by anything else. The mind needs only thinking for performing its own acts. Common notions have origin in observation of things in verbal instruction.

1.1.1. Kinds of Faculty The mind has two different kinds of thoughts. They are intellect and volition. Intellect comprises perception and judgment. Perception contains sense perception, memory and imagination. Sense perception consists entirely on the perception of some material motion, which does not need any intentional forms. It takes place only in the brain, not in external sense organs.

The faculty of judgment is there in every human person. All received it from God. Since God does not wish to deceive humanity, He surely did not give humankind the kind of faculty, which would ever enable none to go wrong while using it correctly. Error arises only when a judgment is made about something without having an accurate perception or understanding.

Volition is divided into two kinds. The first one consists of the actions of the mind, which starts and terminates in the mind itself. In the first one, mind is applied to some object, which is not material. For example, an idea, God is love. This idea emerges in the mind and ends in the mind itself. The second one consists of actions, which start in the mind and cease in the body. For example, when our mere willing to walk has the consequence that our legs move and we walk.

1.1.2. Functions of Mind One of the functions of the mind is to represent the ideas of things. Mind makes all to be aware of the parts of the body: face, hands, arms, and the completely mechanical structure of the limbs. With mind, we are able to reason out things and we are able to find out valuable solutions for the problems. Mind helps us to gather knowledge about the world and to understand the world and things. Mind makes us to think. Action of the mind is called thought. Mind doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling and imagines. Mind does all the intellectual activities. Descartes proposes that the very act of mind, that is thinking offers proof for the individual human existence.

1.1.3. Location of Mind Descartes was the first one to conceive the location of the mind. The discovery of the location of the mind is an achievement of Descartes. Even Hippocrates, the father of medicine, could not find out the location of the mind. Mind radiates throughout the body from the pineal gland by means of the animal spirits. In The Passions of the Soul, Descartes states the following statements about the mind and its location. The mind is united to all the parts of the body. It cannot be said to exist in any one to the exclusion of others. The mind exercises its function immediately only in the pineal gland. The reason is that it is the only single organ, which for example can unify the two pictures formed by the two eyes into one coherent picture. Through these statements, he establishes that location of the mind is in the pineal gland.

1.1.4. Innate Ideas There exist some germs of truth naturally in the mind. Those germs of truth have only one source, which is the mind alone. They come from mind alone. For example, the idea of God. The first principle and the first cause of everything, which is and which can be in the world exist naturally in the mind. The ideas of the first principle and the first cause in the mind are called innate ideas. A natural power is present in the mind. It enables human beings to know God. The ideas of primary qualities are not derived from senses but are innate and inherent in the mind. There are many inborn ideas in the mind but the mind is not aware of all things in it. Even the mind of an infant in its mother’s womb has the power of thought, but it is not aware of it.

Descartes says that among many of the ideas in his mind, some appear to be innate and inborn. He says that his understanding of what a thing is, what truth is, and what thought is, seems to be derived simply from his own nature. He thinks that they are inherent and innate. All clear and distinct ideas are innate and all scientific knowledge is knowledge of innate ideas. Innate ideas are apriori forms of thought, which are not distinct from the faculty of thinking.

1.1.5. Properties of Mind Descartes advances a new conception of the mind and its properties with the wax argument. However, information comes through senses, when looking at un-melted wax and melted wax, neither senses nor imagination can tell that both of these things are wax or that the wax started out un-melted and ended up melted. Only intellect can make the judgment. Without intellect, perceptions and imaginings are meaningless and can tell nothing about the world. The intellect is the source of understanding, sensation and imagination. Aristotle had held that the mind is only intellect. In addition, sensation and imagination are properties of the body. However, Descartes is not for this idea. He insists that sensation and imagination are actually belongings of mind. Even though they involve the body, they are properties of mind.

1.2.	 Body According to Descartes The body has a determinable shape and a definable location and can occupy space in such a way as to exclude any other body. It can be perceived by touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell. It can be moved in various ways. The body has no power to move by itself but it can only be moved by whatever else encounters it. The body is called res extensa. Body is a substance and the essence of body is extension alone. It is a geometric object and it exists only in the perceiving mind. The body exists as the causes of sensation. Sensations come from external bodies. The body is just a machine and it has its own internal economy. The body does not think so it does not belong to mind’s essence or nature. He says that, if he can move his body and direct some of its activities, there is at least this relationship between the two that the mind stands to the body as mover to be moved and the body to the mind as instrument to agent. The body is the vehicle of mind. The definition of man is a mind, which makes use of a body.

1.2.1. Composition of Body The body is a machine made of earth. It has all required inner parts, to walk, eat, breathe and so on. It imitates all the functions, which proceeds from matter and depends solely on the disposition of our organs. We know about man-made machines like clocks, artificial fountains, mills and the like. They have the power to move of their own accord, in many different ways. However, if the machines, our bodies are made by God, they will surely have a greater variety of movements and artistry. The bones, nerves, muscles, vein, arteries, stomach, liver, spleen, brain, and other parts compose the machine, called body and there are very minute parts in the body.

1.2.2. Blood Blood is also one of the essential parts of the body. It penetrates as far as the brain, serves not only to nourish and sustain its substance but also primarily to produce in it a certain very fine wind, or a very lively and pure flame, which Descartes calls as the animal spirit. The arteries carry blood from the heart to the brain. The arteries nerve which make up minute tissues that are stretched like tapestries, at the bottom of the clarities of the brain. They come together again around a certain gland situated near the middle of the substance of the brain, right at the entrance to its cavities. The arteries in this place have a great many little holes through which the finer parts of the blood can flow into this gland.

1.2.3. Animal Spirits Blood in human body produces a certain very fine wind, or rather a very lively and pure flame, called the animal spirits. They help in the movement of the body and its limbs. When they enter into the nerves, they get the power to change the shape of the muscles. By this means, they move all the limbs. Similarly, you might have observed the functioning method of the fountains that the mere force with which the water is driven as it emerges from its source is sufficient to move various machines and even to make them play certain instruments or utter certain words depending on the various arrangements of the pipes through which the water is conducted.

Descartes also uses the functions of the church organ to explicate the function of the animal spirits. The functions of the church organ are well-known to all. The bellows in the organ push the air into the wind-chests and the air passes from there into one or other of the pipes, depending on the different ways in which the organist moves his fingers on the keyboard. In the same way, animal spirit is pushed into the cavities of the brain by the heart and the brain sends the animal spirits through different pores to do different movements.

The functions of the organ depends solely on three things, first the air, which comes from the bellows, secondly, the pipes which make sound and thirdly, the distribution of the air in the pipes. In the same way, the functions of spirits depends on three factors: the spirits, which come from the head, the pores of the brain through which they pass, and the way in which the spirit are distributed in these pores. Animal spirit and nerves help to produce movements and sensations. While we are alive, there is a continued heat in our hearts, which is a kind of fire that the blood of the veins maintains there. The fire is the corporeal principle underlying all the movements of our limbs.

1.2.4. Origin of the Body There are no, much details about the origin of the body. For Descartes, the body is a machine. It is made of earth. God made it. From the body, with the explicit intention of making it as much as possibly like us, God has given not only externally the colours and shapes of all the parts of our bodies, but also placed inside it the parts needed to make it walk, eat, breathe, and indeed to imitate all those of our functions which can be imagined to proceed from matter and depend solely on the disposition of organs. The body is given many varieties of movements and activities by God.

1.2.5. Functions of the Body The functions of the body are digestion of food, the beating of heart and arteries, the nourishment and growth of the limbs, respiration, waking and sleeping, the reception by the external sense organs of light, sound, smell, taste, heat and other such qualities. The imprinting of the ideas of these qualities in the organ of the common sense and the imagination, the retention or stamping of these ideas in the memory, the internal movements of the appetites and finally the external movements of all the limbs.

In order to explain, these functions, then, it is not necessary to conceive of these machine as having any vegetative or sensitive soul or other principle of movement and life, apart from its blood and its spirit, which is agitated by the heat of the fire burning continuously in its heart- a fire which has the same nature as all the fires that occur in inanimate bodies. The body carries out all the orders and commands of the mind.

1.2.6. Senses The sense would seem to exist out side of human beings, they seem to sense birds, trees, animals, and in general, what is called the external world. The senses can deceive us some times. How can we be sure that they do not deceive us, when we think they are true? There are times when we are dreaming and believe ourselves to be awake. Then, an hour later, we awake! Can it be that when we now think ourselves awake, we might be dreaming? Descartes says that the senses establish contact with the world. He accepts the untrustworthiness of the senses, which God has given to all for knowing the world.

The senses help us to realize our head, hands, feet and other limbs making up the body. They help us to perceive our whole self. The senses affect the body in two different ways: favourable and unfavourable ways. The sensation of pleasure is favourable. The sensation of pain is unfavourable. There are many sensations in the body: appetites, hunger, thirst and the like. There are some physical propensities towards cheerfulness, sadness, anger, and similar emotions. The sensation of dryness and pain are carried to the brain by the nerves.

Descartes in his Sixth Meditation tries to investigate the existence of material things and world. Finally, he finds that it seems safe to believe that his God given senses convey to him that he has a body. He holds that, though there is some mysterious link, which join the mind to the body. The mind and body are different things. Having this idea, Descartes dismissed all his doubts of the past and determined that he can trust his senses to know to the world. The senses give the knowledge about the body. The body is perceived by the senses.

Our bodies exist as the source of sensation. God has given us a great propensity to believe that our sensations come to us from external bodies and there is no means to correct the propensity. Descartes says that the mind and body are closely united with one another. He says that sensation and other feelings, like hunger and pain, arise from this union. Sensation cannot be reliable as sources of knowledge useful in maintaining the mind and body unity.

1.2.6.1. Fibres Fibres are parts of the body, which come from the innermost region of its brain and compose the marrow of the nerves. They connect the brain and the other parts of the body. They are arranged in each parts of the machine that serves as the organ of some sense that they can easily be moved by the objects of that sense. When we are moved, they simultaneously pull the parts of the brain from which they come, and they open the entrances to certain pores in the internal surface of the brain. Through these pores, the animal spirits in the cavities of the brain immediately begin to make their way into the nerves and so to the muscles which serve to cause movements in the machine. For example, you pull your foot away from the fire.

1.2.6.2. Kinds of Sensations There are two kinds of sensations: internal and external sensations. According to Descartes, it is not each individual nerve produces a particular kind of sensation. There are only seven principal groups of nerves, of which two have to do with internal sensations and five with external sensations. The nerves, which go to the stomach, throat and internal parts whose function is to keep our natural wants supplied, produce one kind of internal sensation, which is called natural appetite. For example, hunger and thirst. They also produce sensations like disturbance, passion, joy, sorrow, love, hate and so on. The external senses are five: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. They help the body and mind to understand the external world.

CHAPTER 2

THE PROBLEM OF MIND AND BODY

Mind is fundamentally spiritual. Matter or bodies are fundamentally extension. They are explained and subjected to purely mechanical laws. Clearly, mind and body cannot join forces completely and interpenetrate each other. They are too different from each other. One might say that they are worlds apart. If they were able to interact, intermingle and to have union, how would they do so? How can they unite? What is the distinction between them? How is the union between the mind and the body achieved? How does the body affect the mind? How does the mind affect the body? The second chapter gives answer for all these questions.

2.1. Distinction between Mind and Body Mind and body are exclusively distinct substances. Though they are closely united, they are utterly distinct entities. The entities remain separate and separable substances. Even though God has united the mind and the body, God can still separate them if He wills. This is enough to ensure that, despite the union, they are distinct substances.

2.1.1. Unity of Nature Vs Unity of Composition Both distinction and union of the mind and the body are true. The union that brings mind and body together is such a kind that it allows for the retention of the distinct natures of each. It is a ‘unity of composition’ and not a ‘unity of nature’. In the unity of nature, nature is understood as ‘essence’ in a unity of identity of a thing with itself. The unity of nature is the kind of unity possessed by an extended substance that allows the substance to have two different properties like shape and motion at one and the same time. Similar remarks apply to the unity of the thinking substance that allows to the mind to possess the different properties of understanding and volition while remaining as the same substance throughout.

Unity of composition, on the other hand is a kind of unity possessed by an aggregate with distinct substantial parts. The unity of composition is only a contingent conjunction of distinct parts together temporarily. Such a union can be destroyed while the parts themselves remain. For instance, an animal unites both bones and flesh, but each is able to exist independently of the animal. When the animal dies, its body decomposes and for a while, the skeleton will exist while the flesh has withered away. Bones and flesh are united only because they co-exist in the same animal. Nevertheless, they are not so closely united with the animal that they cease to exist on the death of the animal.

Mind and body are distinct from one another and can continue to exist disjointedly after a human’s death. It is unity of composition but not a unity of identity or nature. Mind and body or thought and extension are ‘found in the same man, just as bone and flesh are found in the same animal’ as a unity of composition. Descartes position on the real distinction between the mind and body is a real Separation (remaining separate) rather than real separability (can be separated) between the two substances. Descartes has explicitly disclaimed any sort of pilot-in-a-ship relationship and has insisted upon the substantial unity of man as constituted of a mind and a body distinct from each other.

2.1.2. Demonstration of Distinction of Mind and Body Descartes logically proves the distinction of the mind and the body through this way. God can bring about whatever we clearly perceive in a way exactly corresponding to our perception of it. Nevertheless, we clearly perceive the mind as a thinking substance, apart from the body, the extended substance. We also can clearly perceive the body apart from the mind. Therefore, the mind can exist without the body, at least through the power of God, and similarly the body can exist apart from the mind. Now one substance can exist apart from another. The two are distinct. The mind and the body are substances, which can exist apart from each other. Therefore, there is a real distinction between the mind and the body.

2.2. Substantial Union In the Meditations, Descartes claimed that the mind and body intermingle to form a ‘unit’. The union of the mind and the body is described as a substantial union in the Fourth Set of Objections. Descartes aims to explain the union of the mind and the body in his Letters to Princess Elizabeth. He tells her that the union of the mind and the body is understood very clearly through the senses. In our day-today lives, we conceive the mind and the body as one single thing. He claims this notion is nothing more than the notion of their substantial union.

For Descartes, res cogitans and res extensa are two complete substances and each has its own acts of being. Both constitute the unity of the human being. Descartes writes in his Letters to Regius human beings are made up of body and mind, not by the mere presence or proximity of one to the other, but by a true substantial union. “It is not difficult to find evidence in all of Descartes’ major published works that he consistently held man to be not an accidental composite but ‘substantial union of mind and body.” Descartes says that the substantial union of mind and body takes place in a small gland called Pineal Gland.

2.3. Pineal Gland For Descartes, the mind (res cogitans) is a complete substance and the body (res extensa) is a complete substance. There come questions; how does he solve the problem of their interaction? or, how does the mind influence the body and the body, the mind? Descartes himself gives a solution for these questions. He says that there is a contact between the mind and the body by means of animal spirits (spiritus animales) or vapors (which are neither res cogitans nor res extensa) in the pineal gland.

Pineal Gland is centrally located deep in the brain or in the center of the cranial box. It serves to unify impressions. For example, the double impressions made by the eyes are unified here. It is “the principal seat” of the mind. The interaction between the mind and the body takes place in the pineal gland. It is where the corporal interacts with the mental. It is where the mind imposes its will, or at least interacts with the body. The mind, the body and the pineal gland are closely united. The action of the mind consists in willing. By willing simply, it makes the pineal gland to move in a way necessary for providing the effect aimed in the volition. Each and every volition is naturally connected with some movement of the pineal gland.

2.4. Interaction of Mind and Body Many bodily movements are purely mechanical, involuntary reactions brought about in response to external stimuli. The causal interaction extends to interaction of the mind and the body. The mind moves the body in accordance with its will. Certainly, it does not do so by mechanical means. The mind only has thoughts, which are either passive perceptions or active volitions. It is not extended and cannot be divided. The relation is functional but not physical. The mind directs and leads the whole body equally and because of this, it is ‘united to all the parts of the body conjointly’.

The interaction between the mind and the body works in this procedure. When the mind wants to direct the organs of the body, it is able to do so at this precise point of the brain where the pineal gland is located. From there, the animal spirits take over and move the body mechanically. It is the mind’s action. on the pineal gland that initiates the mechanical process, which leads eventually by the action of the animal spirits on the nerves and muscles, to the movement of the limbs in accordance with the mind’s desire.

2.4.1. Active and Passive Functions The mind’s functions fall into two groups: active and passive functions. Active functions are the mind’s volitions. Its passive functions are its perceptions. Volitions may be directed towards the mind (as when we will to love God) or towards the body (as when we will to walk). Perceptions are caused by the body. The perception of the body include the sense perceptions by account of sense perception before turning to this account of the mind’s active direction of the body’s movements. Although the mind is ‘united to all the parts of the body conjointly’, there is one point in the brain where Descartes believes that the mind operates on the body more immediately. This point is the pineal gland, a small gland at the base of the brain.

2.4.2. Formation of Motion Descartes writes that the mind really does impart motion to the pineal gland and indirectly to the whole body. He also writes that the activity of the mind consist entirely in the fact that simply by willing something the mind brings motion in the pineal gland and the pineal gland moves the body.

2.6. Intermingling of Mind and Body The relation between the mind and the body is causal interaction between the two substances. However, it is clear from the Meditations themselves that it would be inexperienced to understand their interaction on the analogy of the causal interaction between two substances. Descartes focuses on what the relation between the mind and body is not: namely physical interaction as it exists between the sailor and the ship, he directs. The sailor’s body interacts mechanically with the material ship. The sailor moves the ship’s wheel and the ship changes course. However, when sailor’s mind moves his own body, his mind and body come together to constitute a union of the two substances.

Descartes writes in the Meditations that nature teaches us, by sensations of pain, hunger, thirst and the like, that we are not merely present in our body as a sailor is present in the ship, but that we are very closely connected, intermingled with it to form a unit. If it is not, we, who are thinking things, would not feel pain when the body is hurt, but would learn the damage by the intellect, as a sailor learns by sight if anything in his ship is broken. Likewise, when the body needed food or drink, we should have an explicit understanding if the fact, instead of having confused sensations of hunger and thirst. For sensations of hunger, thirst, pain and the like are confused modes of thinking that arise from the union and intermingling of the mind with the body.

CHAPTER 3

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In the third chapter, the problem of mind and body of Descartes, interaction, distinction and intermingling of the two substances: mind and body, are critically analyzed. Thus, the third chapter tries to bring out the critical comments of various contemporary philosophers of Descartes and of various schools of philosophy. This chapter includes my own critics also.

3.1. The Ideas of Mind and Body Descartes is right at saying that the mind and body are distinct and different substances. Descartes says that the ideas of mind and body are different. This notion is acceptable. The terms, mind and body denote two distinct elements. In our lives, we do not use the terms denoting extension, division or addition, when we are talking of love, hope, thought and similar subjects. We do not say that love is so many square yards, hope is so much in weight or that thought is inches in extension. Thus, when referring to mind and body, we differentiate them in our everyday language.

Descartes clearly explains the union and distinction of mind and body. The mind and body are distinct. The union between mind and body is not the unity of nature but unity of composition. Take the example of a statue. It is made out of metal, but in its state as a statue, the metal and the statue are perceived to be one and the same thing. However, if the statue is melted down, then the metal still remains, but the statue no longer exists.

3.2. Independent Existence of Mind For Descartes, mind is a non-corporal substance that is distinct from the material or body-substance. For him, substance is anything, which has independent existence. According to him, mind can exist independent of body. Descartes’ idea of the independent existence of mind is not agreeable. Mind is the thinking capacity. Mind is the faculty of the brain and it cannot exist without the body. The study from brain damage reveals that in the case of brain damage (e.g. caused by automobile accidents, drug abuse, pathological diseases, etc.), the mental substance and properties of the person are significantly changed or compromised. If the mind were a completely separate substance from the brain, how could it be possible that every single time the brain is injured, the mind is also injured?

Indeed, it is very frequently the case that one can even predict and explain the kind of mental or psychological deterioration or change that human beings will undergo when specific parts of their brains are damaged. So, the question for the dualist to try to confront is how can all of this be explained if the mind is a separate and immaterial substance from the body, or if its properties are ontologically independent of the body. Property dualism and William Hasker's emergent dualism  which is largely similar to Vitalism  seek to avoid this problem. They assert that the mind is a property or substance that emerges from the appropriate arrangement of physical matter, and therefore could be affected by any rearrangement of matter. This theory is acceptable.

Phineas Gage, who suffered destruction of one or both frontal lobes by a projectile iron rod, is often cited as an example illustrating that the brain causes mind. Phineas Gage certainly exhibited some mental changes after his accident. This physical event, the destruction of part of his brain, therefore caused some kind of change in his mind, suggesting a correlation between brain states and mental states. Similar examples abound; neuroscientist, David Eagleman describes the case of another individual who exhibited escalating pedophilic tendencies at two different times, and in each case was found to have tumors growing in a particular part of his brain.

Modern experiments have demonstrated that the relation between brain and mind is much more than simple correlation. By damaging or manipulating specific areas of the brain repeatedly under controlled conditions (e.g. in monkeys), it reliably obtained the same results in measures of mental state and abilities. neuroscientists have shown that the relation between damage to the brain and mental deterioration is likely causal. This conclusion is further supported by data from the effects of neuro-active chemicals (such as those affecting neurotransmitters) on mental functions, but also from research on Neurostimulation (direct electrical stimulation of the brain, including Transcranial magnetic stimulation). Therefore, the mind has no independent existence.

3.3. Innate Ideas The theory of innate ideas of Descartes is acceptable. He is very clear in explaining innate ideas. John Locke criticizes the theory of innate ideas. If there are innate ideas, they must present in all minds. However, there are no such ideas, which are universally present in the minds. Children, savages, idiots and illiterate persons are unconscious of the so-called innate ideas. Innate ideas are apriori forms of thought, which are not distinct from the faculty of thinking. The first principle and the first cause of everything in the world exist naturally in the mind. The ideas of the first principle and the first cause in the mind are called innate ideas.

3.4. Body: Just a Machine The idea, the body is a machine is not acceptable. He says that I suppose the body to be nothing but a statue or machine made of earth, which God forms with the explicit intention of making it as much as possible like us. Thus God not only gives it externally the colours and shapes of all the parts of our bodies, but also places inside all the parts required to make it walk, eat, breathe, and indeed to imitate all those of our functions which can be imagined to proceed from matter and depend solely on the disposition of our organs.

We see clocks artificial fountains, mills and other such machines which, although only man-made, have the power to move of their own accord in many different ways. But I am supposing this machine to be made by the hands of God, and so I think you may reasonably think it capable of a greater variety of movements than I could possibly ascribe to it.

This position of Descartes is questionable because in this technological world, though we are able to create a robot, artificial body parts and artificial heart and we are able to replace real parts of the body with artificial body parts, it is not achievable to create human feelings and sentiments; such as love, hatred, affection, reverence and so on. Therefore, the body is not a machine. The feelings and sentiments are created by the body and they can not be created by machine.

3.5. Origin of the Body For Descartes, the body is material. It is made of earth. God made it. These statements reveal that Descartes is deeply rooted in the Christian belief. Though Christianity believes in the creation of God, he blindly agrees with it. He forgets to doubt it. This idea is to be doubted. There are many Holy Scriptures and Sacred Books in all the religion. Can we accept all of them? It is not rational to accept and believe in them without adequate proofs. The validity of the origin of body is to be questioned.

3.6. Pineal Gland The transaction between mind and body in the pineal gland is nothing more than a mere assumption. There is pineal gland in our brain. With the development of endocrinology, it is discovered that the work of the pineal gland is not at all, what Descartes thought. Thus, the science removes the important thing or the core of the dualism. So, the interaction of mind and body in the pineal gland becomes invalid. It is not the pineal gland, that controls the body but the mind, with help of the brain control is the whole body. For creating the pineal gland as the place of interaction of mind and body, Descartes is considered a physiologist rather than a philosopher. The interaction of mind and body in the pineal gland is a draw back in Descartes’ philosophy.

3.7. Interaction If the mind and body have distinct substances or characteristics, how can the two substances react or interact with each other? However, the interaction of mind and body cannot be denied. Descartes’ explanation of interaction of mind and body through the pineal gland has many objections. i. If the mind is not extended in space, how can it be limited to the pineal gland? ii. Whenever some physiological change take place, how does the mind know that there should be some mental reactions to it? iii. Certain functions of the body produce no reactions in the mind, for example, the flowing of blood and the growth of the body and bodily parts create no reaction in the mind. Then, how can he say that the bodily functions produce reaction in the mind? iv. If the mind and body are independent, then why does the sickness in the body interrupt the function of the mind, specifically the thinking process? v. As in the case of human beings, mind and body are also found in animals, and they are also found to possess the pineal gland. Is there any difference between the minds of animals and those of the human beings? What is the difference in these qualities? If not, then why is it that we see no human mind in an animal body? Descartes explains this by saying that animals do not have souls or the power of thought, but then how do their bodies perform different functions?

CONCLUSION

Descartes has been a good philosopher in differentiating the mind and body. He clearly brings out the distinction, interaction, intermingling and existence of the mind and body. The body and mind are different. In other words, they are distinct substances. The mind does not have independent existence for the mind and the body are united. When some damage occur to the brain (a part of body), the mind is also affected and the damage hinders the thinking process of the mind. In addition, bodily sickness slows down the thinking process of the mind. Therefore, the mind is not independent of the body and does not have independent existence.

The sense can deceive us some times but not always. The body is not a machine for the machines cannot produce sentiments: love, hatred, joy, sorrow and so on. Descartes’ understanding of, the origin of the body is the creation by God is not provable. Thus, the origin of body loses its reliability. His theory of innate idea is agreeable.

The body and mind interact with and influence each other. Their interaction takes place not in pineal gland but in the brain of the body. Descartes is criticized for saying that the mind and body interact in the pineal gland. It is not acceptable. Because of this position, Descartes proves to be a physiologist rather than philosopher. It is where; he forgets to doubt and to be a philosopher. The mind and body intermingle to for a unit, called human being.

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