Mind Body Dualism

BigLundi · 2011-10-20T23:32:24+00:00

A long time ago, philosophers like Plato(among others) presented the philosophical proposition of mind body dualism. The proposition was simple: There are two fundamentally different aspects of the human body. The physical(body) and the nonphysical(the Mind). Here's my opinion. I'm sort of on the side of Thomas Hobbes. You have a mind, and a body...now...under Dualism, how exactly do these things interact? If all there is, is the brain and physical body, there are still some mysteries, but not teribly profound ones. I can explain how one gets drunk, and what happens when they get drunk. It's not a perfectly clear and easy explanation, but it's a working model. But if there's an addition to the body and the brain, which would be The Mind, this ppresents a problem. I mean, it goes Alcohol to mouth, mouth to stomach, stomach to blood, blood to brain...and then...somehow it gets to this Mind thing...and how does it do that? How does that work? Renee Descartes figured future scientists would be able to figure this problem out. He even dissected some corpses and looked at brains, and found what HE felt might be the answer. the Penea gland. It's a small walnut sized gland that straddles both hemispheres. He proposed that the peneal gland controls consciousness, and the Mind stems from it. Of course, the gland does not do any such thing, which we know today, as one can REMOVE the gland and be perfectly fine, aside from slight alterations to body chemistry. The question still remains though...why is my consciousness tied to this body? Why is it I can only see out of my eyes? I mean, if there's just a brain, there's no mystery. My eyes are connected to my brain through nerves, and yes, that's all I can see from. If therer's a seperate Mind though, wouldn't it be possible to just...disconnect? Go around and Astrally View things? Ultimately, there have never been a satisfactory explanation of these things, mainly because everyone it, comes completely from the imagination, people are making shit up. Imagination is a great place to start, don't get me wrong, but ultimately imagination has to connect with reality in order for it to have any sort of explanatory power. In my opinion, modern neuroscience has shot mind body dualism all to hell. We can do damage to people's heads and completely warp their personality, we can explain memories, we can explain senses, emotions, all of these things are now explicabe in terms of the central nervous system. Now don't get me wrong, I understand our understandings of the brain still are in its relative infancy, while we can explain most of these things, we can't explain them 100%, however i am of the volition that since these things are backed up by research and data...there's no reason to accept that the Mind is this seperate nonphysical thing. As an added question, to anyone who answers yes, you do believe, can you define for me what a nonphysical thing is?

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Do you accept Mind Body Duality?

Stenta

13 years ago

*H*Fan wrote...

For example (in my view) I know to classify light as a physical object, but because I can only see it but can't taste, feel, hear or touch in my view it will be in the category of non-physical.

You know to classify light as a physical object, but do you know why?

You cannot hear, taste, feel, see or smell germs, viruses, or cells. Does that mean they're not physical objects?

*H*Fan

13 years ago

BigLundi wrote...

A non-physical thing to you is something that someone is aware of...well you d understand that applies to physical objects right? I mean, how can a chacteristic apply to completely dichometric objects? Also, gravity is a physical substance. It's a force that exerts itself on all things in existence, and can be tested, and measured. I'm not aware I have a mind as opposed to knowing I have a brain. If I did, I would accept mind body duality.

Gravity is classified by me as non-physical because I can't touch,feel,see,hear or taste, I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually "black matter" which might have been a better example because we don't know what it is but we know it exists.

[quote="Stenta"You know to classify light as a physical object, but do you know why?
You cannot hear, taste, feel, see or smell germs, viruses, or cells. Does that mean they're not physical objects?[/quote]

1. I class light as non-physical because it is made of photons which do not hold mass.
2. Germs and the like as you have mass so I consider them physical.

Stenta

13 years ago

*H*Fan wrote...

I class light as non-physical because it is made of photons which do not hold mass.

Special relativity would like to have a word with you.

*H*Fan

13 years ago

Hi special relativity *un-sheaths sword* one more step and your head will rolling at my feet. I don study any science, what little information I have obtained is from documentaries.

Stenta

13 years ago

*H*Fan wrote...

Hi special relativity *un-sheaths sword* one more step and your head will rolling at my feet. I don study any science, what little information I have obtained is from documentaries.

Essentially, it's a yes and no answer.
Light has no rest mass as light cannot be at rest.

However, our fancy equation, e=mc^2, essentially dictates that mass and energy are interchangeable.

Light has no rest mass. But it does has relativistic mass.

*H*Fan

13 years ago

@ BigLundi watch the beginning gives a good description of what i was describing from about the 16 sec mark.

BigLundi

13 years ago

*H*Fan wrote...

@ BigLundi watch the beginning gives a good description of what i was describing from about the 16 sec mark.

So, in your opinion, something that's nonphysical is indeed something that can be measured and tested. So, I suppose the follow up is how do we test the mind?

*H*Fan

13 years ago

Yeah that's just about right...

BigLundi

13 years ago

That...doesn't answer the question.

panic

13 years ago

Random statement: What ever in this world that exists now, exists because of you.. Your brain/mind defines them all. What your mind interprets about your surrounding is exactly how much you are able to comprehend about yourself.

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