Essay On Descartes Mind And Body

In Meditation 6, we learn that Descartes comes to the conclusion that the mind and body are two separate entities. His belief is that through the idea that mind and body are separate entities, without the other, one can still exist. He comes to this conclusion by arguing that the mind, a non-extended thinking thing, is an entirely different being than the body, an extended thinking thing, is. He believes that the mind and soul are united to the body but still can be separated from each other and still exist.
His argument is that the mind is different from the brain, which would be apart of the body; therefore the mind is also different from the body. He comes to this conclusion through the first and second certainties of the external world …show more content…
One of them specifically says that there is a distinct disconnection between the mind and body because if you were to hurt a part of the body, it would not directly affect the mind in any form. It would send sensory signals to the brain but the mind itself is still intact. I agree with this because if you were to dislocate your knee for example, your body would send sensory signals of pain to the brain and may not be in a good physical condition but your mind would be. You may be slightly discouraged or feel upset about the situation, but ultimately the dislocation of your knee has not affected your mind. I believe that this confirms his conclusion because he also gives a similar example. He says “the body by its very nature is always devisable, while the mind is utterly indivisible.” He then continues and gives an example of how if you were to cut off a limb, something has been taken away from the body, but nothing has been taken away from the mind, thus proving that the mind is indivisible. After reading his meditations and understanding his observations, I have come to agreement with Descartes’s conclusion that the mind and body are distinctly disconnected and that without the other each can