Rene Descartes, the famous French mathematician and philosopher, pondered how something tangible (the body) could interact with something intangible (the mind). The interrelationship of the flesh and the spirit is subsequently intertwined by a Creator. This is perhaps one of the greatest dialogues in realm of philosophy and religion. What is your viewpoint?
2007-08-14 06:26:01 · 15 answers · asked by Dr. Semi-Evil 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I spent my Senior thesis in undergraduate studies (Phil & Relg) analyzing the relationship of "The Mind-Body Problem" to biblical text. It was a fascinating experience.
2007-08-14 06:35:06 · update #1
That (as some physiological psychiatrists are hypothesizing now) the mind and the body are interdependent. The chemistry of brain/body can affect the mind and the mind can affect the brain/body indicating both are joined in 1 complex dual system (like heart..one organ but 2 sides one for blood in and one for blood out).
Now the mind/body equation can be seen as another example of the duality of matter/energy where matter is the physical and energy is the intangible.
Now since our universe and everything in it, be it matter or energy, is just part of God as our blood is part of us.
So my thinking is that God is the source of all, what we come from and what we return to as we are just parts of the cosmic "body" of God making God the foundation for our matter/energy duality
2007-08-14 06:44:27 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Fun fact, Descartes postulated that the soul acted through the vibration of a gland in the brain. He believed in a duality of Mind/Body, so the Mind had to basically steer the body via a remote control, lodged in the brain.
For the most part, Descartes is better read in the original French. He's actually quite funny, but it doesn't translate well in most of the English versions I've seen.
2007-08-14 06:31:45 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If your mind were something completely intangible, computer tomography, ERG and electrophysiology would not be good ways to study the brain. Personalities would not change as a reaction to brain injury. If your mind exists as a separate entity from your brain, brain injuries should not affect your mind in the first place.
You have to realize when you are thinking you are actually telling a lot of neurons in your brain what to do. When they are active, they do things like release neurotransmitters or neurohormones, which in turn influence other brain areas, e.g. depending on kind or amount of neurohormones you will feel sad or happy. Whenever you think, your body is doing chemistry. This chemistry will affect your body.
This may seem fairly magical to you, but you wouldn't wonder why you can get fat if you are eating only carbohydrates, or why your mind gets drunk if you are drinking alcohol (actually the chemical mechanism of getting drunk is not yet properly understood, but the only spirits involved will be alcoholic..).
Just because you can't see it, it does not mean it does not have a physical presence.
2007-08-14 06:42:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Descartes simply presented the question. He was a mathematician and philosopher not trained in the science of biology or the functioning of the body.
2007-08-14 06:36:42 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think most modern philosophers do not accept the duality of soul/body, but see the human as a total entity. The experiences of life are not perceptable without the body.
2007-08-14 06:38:44 · answer #5 · answered by in a handbasket 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Hu=spirit
man=mass
Spirit in mass
Ego/mind lives within the mind of spirit.
We are co-creators.
Body was designed to follow a pattern of existence. Through our free will we can either use ego/mind to manipulate the body to follow our choices, or expand into the awareness that we are spirit and let spirit mind live wholly aware through the body.
2007-08-14 06:37:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Its no longer a quote, yet a thought i shop having, this is philosophical. What if i'm lifeless, whilst i could desire to have died maximum of cases in my young ones, what if one in all them, i did die, and now i'm in heaven, or in basic terms someplace different than residing. in basic terms without understanding it. I do additionally on occasion ask your self, what if particularly everyone and each thing around me is in basic terms my dream. How do i understand the pc in front of me is authentic and not basically in my mind's eye?
2016-10-10 05:22:39 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"The interrelationship of the flesh and the spirit is subsequently intertwined by a Creator."
I was willing to entertain your ideas until you had to put spirit and creator in there.
2007-08-14 06:39:20 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Buddhism asserts that the dualities do not really exist, so the body is the same as the mind and the mind the same as the body...form is emptiness and emptiness is form...
2007-08-14 06:32:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The flesh and the spirit will be as one when the world is re-created in the image of Jesus Christ. The human race which carries the cross and the burden of Tribulation and Armageddon and comes through it whole will know of the new earth, and the promise of eternal life in paradise on the earth.
2007-08-14 06:32:11 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋