Dualism vs. Materialism The debate of mind and body was a serious subject to the philosophers of primitive times. There are several theories which have attempted to justify their perception in this regard. One of them is the theory of dualism by Descartes while the one totally negating is Churchland’s theory of Materialism. Churchland’s theory sounds much more believable and justified in the advanced era. Descartes theory of mind and body demonstrates that mind and body are two totally distinct things. The mind is meant to do all the thinking and ordering to the body whereas body is only a piece of mass which is meant to follow the orders of the mind. The mind is constant while the body is extendable. The mind can make the body
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It states that everything around us is composed of matter and has physical existence. He denied the idea of Descartes’s dualism by explaining how everything even if it’s an emotion, has a physical description (Churchland). If we dig deep we realize that Churchland is right in his stance because there are no concrete reasons given by Descartes which could prove the distinction of mind and body as two separate entities. Even if we follow the principles of evolution we will come to conclude that everything and every phenomena on in this world is purely physical and nothing more or less. With the scientific developments we have come to know that every process of mind, every thought and every intention and emotion of mind is actually a result of the chemical reactions taking place all the time inside the brain whereas dualists provide assumptuous explanation of every thought process. Thus we can logically approve that there is a physical explanation of everything. This in turn denies Descartes’s distinction between mind and brain. They are in fact the same thing. It is the brain which has the capability of drawing emotions and carrying out thoughts and all of this is a result of physical changes inside the brain. A dualist provides a list of emotions and sentiments that we experience but fails to provide a logical explanation of the process behind these feelings. This is where materialism comes into play. One can’t just term the whole world of mental experiences as spiritual processes, every feeling and thought has its logical and scientific explanation, as described by Churchland. The phenomena like memory, learning capabilities and dreams are all relevant to processes of brain but dualism fails to provide a justified explanation to any of that. It is the logic developed through scientific facts and common sense that negates the idea of Descartes’s dualism even if it can’t be disapproved
It states that everything around us is composed of matter and has physical existence. He denied the idea of Descartes’s dualism by explaining how everything even if it’s an emotion, has a physical description (Churchland). If we dig deep we realize that Churchland is right in his stance because there are no concrete reasons given by Descartes which could prove the distinction of mind and body as two separate entities. Even if we follow the principles of evolution we will come to conclude that everything and every phenomena on in this world is purely physical and nothing more or less. With the scientific developments we have come to know that every process of mind, every thought and every intention and emotion of mind is actually a result of the chemical reactions taking place all the time inside the brain whereas dualists provide assumptuous explanation of every thought process. Thus we can logically approve that there is a physical explanation of everything. This in turn denies Descartes’s distinction between mind and brain. They are in fact the same thing. It is the brain which has the capability of drawing emotions and carrying out thoughts and all of this is a result of physical changes inside the brain. A dualist provides a list of emotions and sentiments that we experience but fails to provide a logical explanation of the process behind these feelings. This is where materialism comes into play. One can’t just term the whole world of mental experiences as spiritual processes, every feeling and thought has its logical and scientific explanation, as described by Churchland. The phenomena like memory, learning capabilities and dreams are all relevant to processes of brain but dualism fails to provide a justified explanation to any of that. It is the logic developed through scientific facts and common sense that negates the idea of Descartes’s dualism even if it can’t be disapproved