Question

Descartes believes that there exists both 'mind' and 'matter' (or 'body' - same thing). Smart believes that there is only 'matter', or the material/physical world, and everything else, including thoughts, sensations and other apparently 'mental' processes are really just physical processes at the bottom. Which view do you find more plausible? Explain why.

Answer 1

The answer is that the mind is a purely thinking thing. Descartes concedes, however, that though what he perceives with his senses may be false, he cannot deny that he perceives. So the human mind is capable of both thought and perception. He explains this using the example of a piece of wax. We understand that solid wax and wax melted by a candle are both wax. Therefore perception is not strictly a function of the senses. It must be the reasoning mind that makes this judgment. Because the senses can be deceived, physical objects, including bodies, are properly perceived only by the intellect, and the mind is still the only thing he can be certain exists.

Descartes says he can be certain that perception and imagination exist, because they exist in his mind as “modes of consciousness,” but he can never be sure whether what he perceives or imagines has any basis in truth. He then expands on his argument for the existence of God from the Discourse. He examines his own mind to see whether there is anything in him that would allow him to make God up. Not only is God perfect, but God is also infinite and all powerful. Descartes knows that he himself is finite. He reasons that it is not possible for a finite being to dream of infinity. Therefore the idea of the infinite must come before the idea of the finite, before any person can begin to think of what he or she is.

The mind body problem or dualism is an age old debate that's still discussed. Descartes suggests that the
mind and the physical body are two different things and the mind operates from outside the physical
world. People like Smart on the other hand believe that mind and body are one and the same. I find
Smart's argument to be very realistic and effective because Descartes was not very much aware of the
neural networks that were connected to a more powerful machine called the brain. Scientific
advancements were not favorable for Descartes in analyzing the importance of the brain instead he went
on with the religious notion of soul thus explaining the mind phenomena outside the physical body. Today,
science has developed exponentially that the research about the human brain is on the rise and almost
every day we get new information about the power of the brain. It's brain that acts as the manager of the
body thus making decisions based on the physical stimuli that are presented in the physical world. This
cognitive and analytic ability of the brain make it the most powerful organ present in a human body. The
brain also facilitates metaphysical thinking that leads to creativity and innovation.