Descartes:Meditation 6, Part 2

To begin his discussion on the relationship between the mind and body he says that nature clearly shows that he has a body, and that he is very closely joined with it. He explains that he knows this because without the body there would be no sensations like pain or hunger. He further specifies that these sensations are modes of thinking which come from this close union with the body.

Here I think Descartes has a good point, but I’m not sure it gets him where he wants to be. I agree that we would have no painful sensations without the body, but I do not believe that this is necessarily evidence for a mind-body c

He asserts that the perceptions of these bodies can be pleasant or painful, so it is clear that some bodies are beneficial, while others should be avoided. What follows at this point is a long discussion on examples of how there are instances when it seems that our nature shows us that we are hungry or thirsty, but indulging in the food or drink is detrimental. This can probably be compared to recorded incidents of phantom pain from amputated limbs. This causes him to question how it is that we may have been endowed with a deception-prone nature. He wonders why God would not prevent such deception because the Omni-God he has “proven” would not create flawed beings or allows us to be permanently deceived. So, he attempts to explain how it is that we can be so prone to error by making some observations.

His first observation is that the body is divisible, while the mind is indivisible. Although he provides an argument for this claim, I don’t find it indubitable. I must admit that some of my skeptical views in this matter come from scientific information that was not yet available in Descartes’ time, so there is no way he could have accounted for it, but I find this information pertinent to discovering the truth of mind and body. Even though I have reservations about furthering the argument for monism (because I would really like to have an immortal soul) it seems that modern psychology has shown that the division of the brain interferes with, and can even stop, certain abilities for thought. There have been several case studies in which a person sustained damage to a portion of the brain, and then the specific corresponding thoughts which would normally take place there became impossible to achieve. The case of H.M. is one of the most well-known. H.M. underwent s

Some topics in this essay:
Descartes I’m, Dualism Meditation, pineal gland, gland produces, gland produces sensation, short-term memory, sufficient evidence, mind body, evidence claims, mind-body distinction, trust senses, immediately affected, relationship mind,