The Mind and the Physical Body Essay - 586 Words

The Mind and the Physical Body Since the times of Plato and Aristotle, the argument of dualism and mutualism of the mind and body has been in existence. Dualism has been the driving force behind the existence of the mind/body problem and has been by far the majority view due largely to the influence of Descartes. In recent times, modern medicine has taken a shift towards mutualism. Outside stimuli, as perceived by the mind, affects the body either beneficially or adversely. While the body as an organism has the capacity to heal, evidence proves that the mind expedites recovery. The mind and body are one. Evidence of this mutualism exists in Divakarunis What the Body Knows. This story shows that the condition of the mind is a†¦show more content†¦The incidents have poisoned her thinking and her health. Aparna is operated on but still shows no sign of a healthy recovery. The staff is very quiet and mum to her while she is poked and prodded some more. Adding more to the negativity, she overhears a desk nurse telling Umesh that shes lost the will to live. The nurse advises him to take her son to her, which he does with hope. The baby is squirrelly and she feels slighted as a mother. She has her friend take him, not so much out of rejection but frustration--he is getting stronger while she grows weaker. Her negative experiences with bringing life into the world have twisted her perceptions in her mind and her body dwindles further into oblivion. - Not until the surgeon, Dr. Michaels, tells her about the operation does her recovery actually begin. The doctor gives her detailed information on the procedure, noting that no one wanted to operate on her. He told her of being knocked kneed with fear and how intense the operation was. Dr. Michaels honesty with her in the details of the operation, his own feelings and how he felt she was giving up was music to Aparnas ears. Ap arna finally had the positive stimuli that she had not experienced from the staff or even from her husband. She reaches out to him feeling the warmth of his cheek noting the warmth and life in him; reinforcingShow MoreRelatedThe Is The Mind, And A Physical Body1857 Words   |  8 Pageswhich also is the mind, and a physical body. The argument that supports my belief the best will generate from the concept of a persons thoughts. I reject the belief that everything that is real must be in physical form. I believe there are both an immaterial part to you and a physical part. The physical part of you cannot survive without the immaterial. The immaterial part of a person is the soul, which I also believe, is the mind. However, your soul can live on without the physical sense of you. IRead MoreI, Myself, And My Body1222 Words   |  5 Pagesand My Body The mind is about mental processes and thought, while the body is the physical aspects of the brain. For years, philosophers have been perplexed by the mind-body problem. The mind is about mental processes and thought, while the body is the physical aspects of the brain. The mind-body problem discusses the mind and body, along with the relationship between them. Dualists and monists are the two types of people that take a stand on the issue. While Dualism may spilt mind and body, monismRead MoreThe Mind Body Problem : Interactionism And Physicalism1241 Words   |  5 Pagestalked about concepts of philosophy is that of the mind-body problem. In short, the mind-body problem is the relationship between the mind and the body. Specifically, it’s the connection between our mental realm of thoughts, including beliefs, ideas, sensations, emotions, and our physical realm, the actual matter of which we are made up of the atoms, neurons. The problem comes when we put the emphasis on m ind and body. Are the mind and body one physical thing, or two separate entities. Two argumentsRead More How The Brain Works Essay1307 Words   |  6 PagesCurrent research shows that mental events cause physical events, and scientists believe examining single nerves is the key to understanding how the brain works as a complete unit. Understanding the brain at the nerve cell level will allow scientists to understand how human consciousness works (Blakeslee, 1992). Furthermore, the brains thalamus is identified as the possible sensory connector because it fires 40 impulses per second that sweep through the entire brain (Blakeslee, 1995a). These findingsRead MoreThe Mind Body And Body1341 Words   |  6 Pages The Mind-Body problem arises to Philosophy when we wonder what is the relationship between the mental states, like beliefs and thoughts, and the physical states, like water, human bodies and tables. For the purpose of this paper I will consider physical states as human bodies because we are thinking beings, while the other material things have no mental processes. The question whether mind and body are the same thing, somehow related, or two distinct things not related, has been asked throughoutRead MoreRelationship Between Mind And Body929 Words   |  4 PagesIn philosophy, Mind–body dualism is any theory that states that the mind and body are two distinct kinds of substances or natures. The problem of the relationship of the mind to body arose from the works of Renà © Descartes, a French philosopher and mathematician of the 17th-century who gave dualism its classical formulation or made it to be what it is today. Conceived from his famous â€Å"Cogito, ergo sum† ( Latin) meaning â€Å"I think, therefore I am,† he developed a theory of the mind as a nontangible andRead MoreDescartes s Meditations On First Philosophy917 Words   |  4 PagesFirst Philosophy, Descartes introduces the dualistic idea of a sharp split between mind and body. This mind-body split is a Western secular idea and discounts many important aspects of the human experience. Descartes argues that, â€Å"†¦a body, by its very nature, is always divisible. On the other hand, the mind is utterly indivisible† (Descartes, 56). This idea that there is a distinct difference between the mind and the body is nonsensical from both a phenomenological and a scientific perspective. FurthermoreRead MorePersonal Philosophy Of Sports And Physical Activity1121 Words   |  5 PagesThe body is always seen as two parts working together, mind and body. We study these concepts as if they were separate, such as biology for the body and psychology for the mind. Taking two differ ent courses, one for mind and body, cause me to develop a dualism philosophy. After taking Kinesiology 305 Historical and Philosophical base of Kinesiology, I started to understand the body shouldn’t be seen as two things, but as seeing both mind and body equally important and should be devoted the same amountRead MoreIs the mind independent to the body?791 Words   |  4 Pagesthe mind independent to the body? The mind body problem is a philosophical problem that is concerned with the relationship between the mind and the body, whether the mind exists independently of the body or whether the mind and body are one substance. There is a vital difference between the mind and the body some would say, meaning that the mind is held responsible for mental elements such as pain, euphoria, desire, purpose, belief and kindness whereas the body is responsible for the physical elementsRead MoreRene Descartes And George Berkeley1014 Words   |  5 Pagesproblem of mind and body. I will look at the views of Rene Descartes and George Berkeley. I will be siding with Descartes. The mind-body problem ultimately encases the difficulty understanding how the mind and body interact, what they entail, and how they interact and communicate. Rene Descartes believed that the mind and body are two separate entities, as stated in ‘Descartes’s Dualism’. He held the notion that while the body is in fact a part of the physical world our minds are not. Our minds are the