Descartes Body And The Mind Analysis

Imagine a soldier losing his leg after the war. He loses a piece of his body, but does he what happens to his mind? In Descartes’ excerpt, from “Descartes Selections,” he explains how though the detachment of persons’ limb signifies separation from the body, the same cannot be said for the mind in the same context. With a series of supported arguments he proves that while the body and the mind can have a connection and a relationship with each other, the body can be divided into many parts and the mind cannot. In Discussion and around this topic, Descartes is very prevalent in his opinion around the ultimate division of the body and mind. We will reference his philosophy around what it means to have two separate entities as humans.
Descartes’ theory about the mind and body states that the body is “always divisible” and the mind cannot be divided (Descartes). To support this argument he …show more content…
The fact that we define the human body as having legs, arms, flesh, bones, organs, and a head is more than enough to agree that each of these, and more, are parts of what make up the body. We could even say that when a part of the body is separated, the body still remains a body for the fact that only a part of it was taken away. In fact in “The Philosophers Way”, Descartes’ ideas around a “non-material, immortal, conscious being” (Chaffee) is an ideal that set a precedent for philosophers to come. It is actually here that he ultimately found that this defines knowledge and self. “Cogito, ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am” is a statement that defines Descartes’ views around the being self-aware and shining light around the fact that there is without a doubt a thinking, nonphysical entity that is the mind or consciousness. I believe that in this way he really highlights that it is not an organ like your brain that gives you knowledge, but rather your versatile mind that houses your soul and your