As described in his meditations Rene Descartes' suggested a theory of head (Prado, 2009). Meditation VI argued that the mind and your body are distinct chemicals. By this he recommended that human beings are made up of two kinds of stuff, a material chemical that may be extended and an immaterial element that cannot be prolonged. He suggested that immaterial chemicals were sufficient for mental occasions only and therefore the head was made up of an immaterial material where as your body was made up of a materials product (Descartes, 1963). Descartes' submit two arguments about the connection of the mind and your body, these arguments contains the divisibility argument and the understanding argument. I am analyzing the divisibility debate where he declares that ". . . there's a vast difference between your mind and the body, in respect that your body, from its aspect, is usually divisible which mind is totally indivisible. " Out of this, he therefore concluded that his mind and his body were two individual entities. I disagree with this assertion because I think that the mind and the body are of an individual entity and to allow them to have causal interactions where they possess, they must be made of the same stuff.
Descartes' builds his assumptions on Lebiniz's legislations to be able to establish mind-body dualism (Prado, 2009). Leibiniz's law claims that if entities X and Y are the same then it must be true that X and Y have the same properties. However, if X and Y do not have the same entities they are of different properties. Descartes' uses this as a basis for his premises, in a way that the body is made of material stuff and your brain is constructed of immaterial stuff which means mind and body do not have the same properties. Yet, in response to this, I would that your brain and the body interact so that your brain influences your body and vice versa.
(1) Bodies and divisible
(2) Intellects are indivisible
(3) Therefore, your brain is particular from the body
In Descartes' divisibility discussion premise two expresses that the mind is indivisible. For this to be true we must already conclude and admit that your brain is an immaterial chemical. However, this begs the question because the mind cannot be purely manufactured from immaterial element. I think that the mind cannot be strictly an immaterial element because the mind and brain interact. It isn't plausible for just two substances that are constructed of completely different materials to work together in such a way that the mind and brain do. For example, the mind instructs the brain that this wishes to go to the films and the mind changes these thoughts into actions and takes the person to the movies. This argument may be criticized by Descartes', because he holds that his is divisible such that his arms and legs could be break up and so could his physical brain, however he points out that it is not plausible that your brain can be sectioned off into such parts.
Although Descartes' arranged that the mind and body connection exists. The basis which he believed this is shown to be incorrect. He thought that the pineal gland was responsible for the mind and body interaction. He regarded it as the area in which the mind resides. Furthermore he mentioned that "the small gland which is the main chair of the heart and soul is suspended within the cavities including these spirits, such that it can be migrated by them in as much different ways as there are perceptible distinctions in the things. But it may also be moved in various various ways by the soul, whose characteristics is so that it receives as many different impressions-that is, they have as many different perceptions as there occur different activities in this gland. And conversely, the mechanism of the body is so built that simply by this gland's being changed at all by the heart and soul or by every other cause, it drives the encompassing spirits for the pores of the brain, which direct them through the nerves to the muscles; and in this manner the gland makes the spirits move the limbs. " Descartes' was clearly mistaken about the function of the pineal gland, which is currently known to be a sleeping inducing organ that produces serotonin (Martin, 2003). In addition to the recommendation that the pineal gland is the link between the mind and the brain Descartes' makes no more reviews about the mind-body connections.
In addition, your brain being manufactured from immaterial material violates the laws and regulations of conservation of energy. The law of Conservation of Energy states that in virtually any system the power remains constant. As a result, energy cannot be created or ruined (Walker, 2007). We are able to all concur that the mind is located within the mind but now you can find the problem of interaction. In order for the mind and body to work together there has to be a channel in which this communication occurs.
In Response, Descartes would declare that if they could be of different entities; they could transform the vitality from immaterial forms to material varieties. However when things like a solid is turned to liquid and vice versa there is a chemical change that is along with a physical change. If this were so, when the mind changes, the brain will modify itself with your brain.
Descartes' thought that the mind could exist without your body. This declaration lacks power because he fails to distinguish between your mind and the heart. In this sense it is really as though Descartes' uses the words "mind" and "soul" interchangeably and appears to explain the religious view of the spirit when he speaks of your brain in his meditations. The mind itself whether immaterial element or not, cannot endure without the body, it is however plausible for the spirit to live on after the body has approved. I assume that it is unconceivable that your brain can can be found without the body because the brain is an integral part of the physical body and your brain is a part of the brain or at least brain operations, which is aware and mindful. Humans are also struggling to live without their brains as it is an essential part of success. The mind regulates human hormones and controls vital organ functions, even though we don't realize when these procedures occur. Therefore, the mind coexists with the mind and cannot can be found without it.
"For in reality, while i consider your brain, that is, while i consider myself in up to now only as I am a pondering thing, I can separate in myself no parts. " Descartes' uses this assertion to claim that the mind is indivisible and that when he considers himself in his mind's eye that he only is aware of one whole thing. It really is true that your brain is a thinking thing however Descartes' does not differentiate between a considering thing and divisibility. There nothing at all that makes it sure that a thinking thing can't be divisible.
In addition, the divisibility argument does not are the cause of various other factors including diseases of the brain or subconscious disorders such as multiple personality disorder. Modern technology shows that contrary to Descartes' divisibility argument, when a area of the brain is removed a part of the mind gets impacted (Pinel, 2009). Although these results are not apparent when an arm or a leg is take off, there is evidence which supports the idea that whenever a certain area of the brain, such as the frontal lobe is removed, the results cause severe impairment in their personality as well as their ability to reason (Martin, 2003). Furthermore Studies on the mind have shown a disease in the brain can affect mind processes, specifically Alzheimer's disease has a negative effect on storage area and personality (Galasko, Klauber, Hofstetter, Salmon, Lasker, & Thal, 1990). Additionally, research on multiple personality disorder shows that your brain can be divisible, in a way that an individual can display the power of multiple intellects as well as change between their personalities (Pinel, 2009).
For this debate Descartes' would reply by saying this will not mean that there are multiple heads but multiple areas of one head. Conversely, I would argue that if it were the aspects of multiple thoughts within the main one brain than how can it be described that a person personality could be right handed and the other be kept handed. Therefore, it's possible that brains can be divisible.
The reason for the divisibility argument was to demonstrate that the mental states will vary to brain claims. However, I think that Descartes' arguments were without such a means that he already assumed that your brain was indivisible. The divisibility debate by itself cannot show that your brain and the body are distinct chemicals. Further evidence is required in order to examine the way in which the mind steps information and exactly how these details gets from our thoughts to the physical world.
