Theories of Reality
October 8,2002 (Tuesday)

This class talked about Descartes' view of Cartesian interactionism, his Dualistic view of mind and body.

Just to make sure students know that there will be no packet for this class. Also students will have to post two class days of notes here, not three as the syllabus states.

Descartes is pronounced- "Day Kart"
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Descartes is a Dualist- believing that the mind and body are two seperate things. His dualist answer to the mind and body problem is that they interact in the pineal gland and they can effect each other.
- the mind can effect the body.
(a) If I remember that I left the lights of my car on I will rush to the parking lot and turn them off. (mind effecting body).
-body can effect the mind.
(b) If my foot gets stomped on I will be conscious of a sensation of pain. (body effecting mind).

The pilot and ship analogy shows how the mind and body are not related. If the ship gets a hole in the side of it the captain will think that he needs to take care of that problem. The pilot of the ship is like our brain and the ship is like our body. We don't observe that our body has just been broken we feel it. we're intermingled (body and mind).
our minds and body's have an intimate connection that's so closely fused.
your self= your mind,soul, consciousness.
and the body is a material thing.
when you use the word "I" in a sentence like I am so attractive, you are speaking of the body. when you use the word "I" in a sentence like I am so smart you're speaking about the mind.
In Dualism the mind has many words that are equal like the mind is the same as our soul, spirit, consciousness,immaterial substance and the body is material substance or physical. The mind and body can be seperated, such as, the mind has perceptions, ideas,feeling abstract or concrete, sensations such as pain and pleasure. The body is composed of material, it has mass and weight , temperature, density and it's extended in space with size and shape. Althouth, when descartes makes this statement about the mind not having size or shape and not being in space he also says the mind is in the pineal gland which has a location in the head, so that is opposite of what he feels. contradicts himself there.
consciousness is seperate from biological.
Descartes felt that animals were like machines with no consciousness, that they didn't feel pain or pleasure and that they had no soul. he may have stated those feelings because of the church and maybe he was afraid of going to jail? we don't know forsure.

Descartes wrote letters back and forth with Hobbes. Hobbes was a materialist who believed everything is matter in motion. they argued back and forth on matters like how much does the concept of justice weigh? concepts don't have weight, kind of a non sensible topic.
is this table abstract or concrete? abstract is an idea not a table or mass.
does this rock logically imply this other rock? material objects are not ideas.

Mental and physical are two different concepts. since mental and physical are distinct concepts they are different substances. substances can exist on their own, so substance is different and distinct. mental and physical denote different substances!
the way he thought it all worked was like this. the eyes and ears take in information/data which is then processed in the pineal gland, the brain is the interface between mind and body.
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how do we know animals think and feel?
are animals conscious?

argument/proof of agreement for that
1. their behaviour is similar to ours
2. they feel hunger, fear, pain. we step on their foot they screech. they show affection, sulking
3. they can associate between words
4. physiological similarities like nervous system and brain, eyes, etc.
5. they have expressions and postures.

descartes' arguement against.

1. they don't have the ability to reason.
2. they can't use language
3. animals just operate on stimulus response.
4. the church wants us to think that the animals are just for our fun and food. and the church feels they don't have souls so he better believe that or persecution may prevail. possible fear.