StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Philosophy of the Mind - Admission/Application Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The topic of philosophy of the mind (dualism) which is referred to as soul has over the centuries been marred by controversy. The existence of the soul has been put to question and its relation with the body has also been put to scrutiny. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.7% of users find it useful
Philosophy of the Mind
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Philosophy of the Mind"

Philosophy of the Mind Introduction The topic of philosophy of the mind (dualism) which is referred to as soul has over the centuries been marred by controversy. The existence of the soul has been put to question and its relation with the body has also been put to scrutiny. Quite a number of philosophers and researchers have attempted to come up with conclusive reports on the matter. Dualism is therefore closely associated with the views forwarded by a French philosopher, Rene Descartes who held that the mind is not a physical substance. Descartes objectively identified the human mind with a lot of awareness as well as self-consciousness. He argued that mind is very different from the brain (Robinson 85-101).This essay attempts to provide the rationale of the philosophical concept of dualism. Philosophical arguments relating to composition of dualism What then is dualism? As contained in the dialogue Phaedo, the famous Greek philosopher Plato constituted his popularly theory that relates to forms as substances that are distinct and in essence immaterial. Plato therefore put it vividly in the dialogue that the Forms are fundamentally ideal universals that enables human persons to have a comprehensive understanding of his own world. Plato's forms of dualism are demonstrates that non-physical and non-mental forms does not exist in space, time and more convincingly the mind. As argued by Plato even the human person as portrayed by Swinburne generally thinks that souls have feelings and belief. In relation to this, the body and the soul are two distinct things with no natural and meaningful connection that are features of unity. The existence of their relationship if any may only be described as nominal and coincidental. It may then be argued that the any interaction and vital connection that may characterize the two is basically superficial (Robinson 85-101). Another great Greek philosopher Aristotle comes in to fill the vacuum by putting forth his own argument that human person has forms which illustrates the soul as a form and the body as matter. He strongly holds to the opinion that that the substantial understanding of the body and soul should enable a human being to contend to the fact that it is more than just a mere interdependence and interrelation two distinct substances. This he explained in De Anima where he said that “So every natural body which pertakes life would be a substance of the composite kind”. Acknowledging the existence of such a body, the soul would then not qualify to be called a body for a body should in essence not belong to any subject but should essentially exist as a matte (Searle, 457). In addition to that the soul must exist as a substance that takes the form of natural body that has the potentiality of life which must display actuality. It is in this aspect that the soul is the actuality of the body. So based on his opinion, the soul is a function of an organized body and therefore is not a subject of independency and separate existence. Aristotle has therefore provided a more distinct and complex understanding of the relationship between the body and the soul, but as portrayed in his reasoning, the soul is not eternal but only generated thus a fundamental subject of time. It may then be objective to say argue that Aristotle had functionalism ideologies. Functionalism may be defined as antithesis of the concept of dualism that states that human person mind is non existent and does not believe in the existence of mental states that are in apparent similarity to physical states. Such notion is broadly acknowledged among the modern day philosophers, However, owing to their total concern about the nature of physical substance and its relative organization, they have been evading the epicenter of the issue, thus the mental substance and its conceptual relationship with the physical one, which brings a point of weakness in their philosophical thoughts. According to Searle (417-457), the controversy as per the existence of the soul in perpetuated further by the issue of Enlightenment. As argued by Descartes, the human person generally consists of body and soul. What Descartes means by body is in sharp contrast to the Aristotle’s conception as he argued that the human mind is intimately united with the body. This shows that it is not the human body that makes and gives character to a person. This belief therefore mandates Descartes to acknowledge the view that other beings other than human ones are the only animals with consciousness. What emerges out of arguments forwarded by Descartes is that he has no clear and comprehensive explanations relating to body for he argued that the mind is not directly affected by the soul. This argument by Descartes is very controversial in the sense that it is widely believed that there is a causal interaction between the physical composition and the mind. According to his views, it would then be justified to say that the mind is generally a physical being. The failure of Plato and Descartes to explain the essential and natural relationship between the body and soul raises another field of opposition against dualism thus materialism. The core of human civilization in the contemporary world that has been adopted by many philosophers is materialism. Materialist therefore widely believe that a human being is his own body and thus what is widely understood as the human mind is overtly nothing but just a bodily ideological concept. As held by the materialists, human person should be understood in relation to the prevailing physical conditions. Such opinion has been widely held for a long time and can be traced from the times of early philosophers such as Lucretius and La Place. Descartes dualistic idea combined with materialism produced what is referred to as behaviorism thus the rise of identity theory which forms part of materialism. As mentioned by Churchland (76-81), behaviorists therefore are of the opinion that mental states, sensations as well as mental states have a lot of identity with what is found in the brains. But materialism has a lot of challenges compared to dualism, thus one main point of objection concerns how human person can convincingly explain the existence of human thoughts. It is therefore a mystery to relate thoughts to the human feelings that may encompass love and hate or a blend of reactions in regard to materials that occurs in the human body. The concept of materialism has many challenges as its philosophical quantification is not easy. In the event that materialism holds some substantial truth, what then emerges is the measurement of its dimensions as demonstrated by the feelings of thoughts as well as other mental states. Materialism as a way of explaining the existence of dualism is also at crossroads as the other philosophical theories. Other lines of philosophical thoughts that offer to challenge the concept of dualism include idealism. However, such philosophical thoughts have the same degree of challenges as others in their attempts the relationship between the body and the soul (Wilson 495-513). According to Descartes, the mind is a thinking thing which is an immaterial substance. The thinking thing is what provides the self to the human person thus that which can hope, think and do a number of things. The difference between the body and the mind as discussed by Descartes relates to a distinct idea of the self. He therefore argues that the mind which is thinking thing can as well exist in separate to its extended body, thus the mind is primarily a thing very different from the body. It is a substance whose fundamental value is thought. It is the fundamental claim that is popularly referred to as Cartesian dualism. It is an ideological concept that has a lot of recognition in the contemporary philosophies. It is obvious that mental events are the determinants of physical events. However, the controversy in relation to this concerns how an immaterial mind may have influence over the material body (Beakley & Ludlow et.al, 24-37). Conclusion In conclusion, Plato’s explanation of the idea of human mind that acknowledges two fundamental things in human body and consequently supported by contemporary philosophers such as Descartes has been subjected to a lot of philosophical and scientific opposition. The relationship between the human body and the soul therefore provides a turning point to clear the air on the issue of philosophical dualism. Although materialism and functionalism may be considered as a compromise, they are still marred with many challenges. It may then be said that the ancient philosophical theories relating to the critical issue of dualism are in more ways sensitive to thinking and speaking that are in no way supported philosophically. Works Cited Beakley, B., Ludlow, P.,et.al, The Philosophy of Mind: Classical Problem Contemporary Issues, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1992 Churchland, Paul, Matter and Consciousness, Revised Edition, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988. Robinson, H. "Dualism", in The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind, ed. S. Stich and T. Warfield, Oxford: Blackwell, 2003, pp. 85-101. Searle, J. “Minds, Brains, and Programs,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3 (1990): 417-457. Wilson, M. “Leibniz and Materialism,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 3 (1974): 495-513. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Philosophy of the Mind Admission/Application Essay”, n.d.)
Philosophy of the Mind Admission/Application Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1442512-to-philosophy-of-the-mind-theology
(Philosophy of the Mind Admission/Application Essay)
Philosophy of the Mind Admission/Application Essay. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1442512-to-philosophy-of-the-mind-theology.
“Philosophy of the Mind Admission/Application Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1442512-to-philosophy-of-the-mind-theology.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Philosophy of the Mind

Philosophy of the Mind/Theology

Each of the papers is to be a defense of or an attack on a particular position or claim from the previous section's readings or speakers.... The claim used must be appropriately narrow.... (You can't defend “Life is a good thing.... ??) The claim must be fairly important to the work in which it appears....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Philosophy of the Mind/Theology

As what was stated by John Locke, the mind has no innate ideas at birth.... Therefore, Plato's claim that the mind is born with knowledge is false.... The incentives and provocations available in one's milieu exercise the mind, eventually honing it.... Using another example, the mind can realize that an object combined with another one will result to two objects.... If the mind does not need senses to obtain knowledge, learning is impossible....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Connectionist model

Alternatively,… ionism can be defined as a set of varying approaches in the fields of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, neural science, and Philosophy of the Mind that models mental or behavioral phenomena as the emergent process of interconnected networks of simple units.... Alternatively, connectionism can be defined as a set of varying approaches in the fields of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, neural science, and Philosophy of the Mind that models mental or behavioral phenomena as the emergent process of interconnected networks of simple units....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment

Philosophies of Plato and Aristotle

This paper aims to examine Plato's and Aristotle's views on the Philosophy of the Mind—specifically, what the terms 'form' and 'substance' mean to each of them and how these are acccessed by humans.... The last part will conclude this paper by stating the relevance of each of their views in the subsequent studies on the Philosophy of the Mind—how their analyses guided various schools of thought pertaining to metaphysica and the mind-body problem (philosophies of St....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Explaining Grahams Rejection of Anti-Realism

This explanation links Philosophy of the Mind and psychopathology and determines that Philosophy of the Mind and psychopathology are co-dependent, in reference to psychiatry.... Therefore, Graham's realism concept contributed to a holistic explanation of mental disorders within the field of psychiatry; furthermore, the introduction of the concept in the field of psychiatry draws on psychopathology to explain the how the mind works (Graham, 2013)....
8 Pages (2000 words) Term Paper

The Intetionalist and Reductionist Theories of Sex

According to the article, the truth of the reductionist theory is based on the presumption of sexual pleasure being uniform across different sexual encounters and is based on the Philosophy of the Mind.... he Aristotelian understanding of the human mind has been utilised in seeking to understand the different accounts of sex.... Journal of Applied philosophy, 20(1), 1–16....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Philosophy of the Mind: Aristotle and Schwartz

This essay "Philosophy of the Mind: Aristotle and Schwartz" evaluates the views of philopsophers on the nature of mental causation in order to draw out their areas of similarities and differences.... What is in question is whether it is the mind/soul that makes us do things or it is the physical body.... the mind for Aristotle is a faculty of the soul that is not reducible to bodily properties.... However, this does not apply to the mind which is capable of functioning without a body....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Significance of Utilitarian and Kantian Ethical Theories

… The paper “The Significance of Utilitarian and Kantian Ethical Theories" is an outstanding version of an essay on philosophy.... Utilitarian and Kantian Ethical theories have been played a significant role in developing the aspects related to many aspects and are prevalent in all theologies....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us