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ON THE NATURE OF  THE MIND AND BODY

Two of the major constants in our lives is that we have a mind and a body. What are the mind and body? Are they connected or are they separate? These are questions that have been asked by many a man and philosopher. Descartes was one philosopher who tried to tackle this mind body problem. He believed they are separate substances and his stance is called dualism. I will attempt an analysis of his belief of dualism and give some of the arguments of philosophers like Shaffer, Spinoza and Broad.

In Descartes sixth meditation from Meditations on First Philosophy, he states his belief on the mind body issue. Descartes believed that the mind and body were separate substances. The notion of a substance to Descartes, was that which can exist independently of anything else. He believed that there is only one infinite substance which is god, but the mind and body are finite substances. Descartes believed that finite substances needed only God to exist. These two finite substances were the corporeal substance (the body) and the thinking substance (the mind).

Descartes also stated that we all know that the body is observable and measurable. The mind on the other hand is not directly observable other than the person who owns it. Also, since the body is extended in three dimensional space, it can be divided into specific parts, the mind however does not occupy space and cannot be divided. The nature of the body according to Descartes was that, unlike the mind it was divisible.

"There is a great difference between mind and body, inasmuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible."1

 

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