Descartes dualism

DESCARTES DUALISM
Name:
Institution:
Descartes Dualism
Introduction
René Descartes was a French, physiologist, philosopher, and mathematician with whom the first efficient explanation of the body and mind connection is accredited. He believed that matter goes about its business and follows on its own rules unless when the mind interferes. He termed how the nonphysical mind interacts with the physical one as a point of argument. Descartes also believed that one of the glands in the brain called the pineal gland was mainly the point of interaction between the body and the mind. He argued that this gland was the only genuine part of the brain the rest were duplicates. Most importantly, according to Descartes the body and the mind are not the same thing. Dualism is therefore the certainty that an entity contains two different components. The brain, one of the components acts as a link between the body and the mind, it is however not the actual mind because it is a material and variable thing. Man’s mind is whole and cannot be divided but the body is changeable. For instance, an individual can lose his limbs or even eyes but this type of loss does not reduce his mind in any way.
Descartes believed that man was the only dualistic creature among all the creatures. He classified animals as being solely physical and acting wholly on intuition and the laws of the natural world. While analyzing the mind in philosophy, dualism proved to hold the physical object and the non-physical objects. In a bid to solve this problem (mind and body), Descartes came up with a version of dualism known as the Cartesian Dualism, which narrows down the argument of the mind, being a different unit since it has distinct features over the brain and the body. Cartesian Dualism also states that the mind interacts with matter in that it interacts with the body and in these interactions. The body can cause sensations that will be felt in the mind as well. For inst...