Mind-Body Essay

When the mind and body relationship is deliberated depending on ones' view, the view of the mind can be either separate functions working separately or two functions working together. Nonetheless on which view is chosen, thoughts cannot be placed into a class of things that can be measured. Thoughts do not appear to have color, weight, size, shape, velocity, mass or temperature. Thoughts do not fit into the world of physical nature as the human body does because the human body can be observed for the reasons stated above. The human body is an extraordinary design which can tell us a great deal about our way of life. Unquestionably some of our most important characteristics can be observed in features of our outer body appearances and what special advantages and physical limitations they obligate. These distinctive ways are how we function as individuals; these characteristics stand out clearly. When one thinks of the mind and body does one think of the mental world is different from the physical world? Does one think of them as two separate realities or elements in the world of minds and bodies? Hence, the relevance of these questions to issues concerning the mind-body has been the argument over the relationship between the mind and body that has been fascinating philosophers for centuries.

In philosophy, the mind and body is divided into two broad categories. Nevertheless, this essay will contrast between dualist mind/body interaction and mind/body parallelism. Conferring to these two categories, dualism mind-body interaction refers to both that mental events can cause physical events and that physical events can cause mental events even though they are two separate forms. For instance, do mental states cause me to act in certain way? Parallelism is a theory that the mind-body interaction doesn't exist. A parallelism view is that mental and physical phenomena occur in parallel form, but that these simultaneities never involve causal interactions. These two subjects will be contrasted by Descartes and Huxley. Both philosophers will be analyzed in the terms of their theories and how it works best with mind-body in psychoanalytic problems like anxiety, illnesses and the correlation of stress, and how it can be used as a painkiller.

The philosophy of interactionism was introduced by French Philosopher Rene Descartes. Descartes is among one of many philosophers who laid the foundation of the dualism idea. Under the sub-category of dualism interactionism which relates between the mind and body with one another, that is, the mind influences the body and the body influences the mind. Descartes believed that the mind and body were separate substances. The notion of a substance to Descartes can exist independently of anything else. He believed that the mind and body are finite substances which are the corporeal substance (the body) and the thinking substance (the mind). Also, he stated that we all know that the body is observable and measurable. He believed that the mind on the other hand is not directly observable other than the person who owns it. Also, since the body is extended in three dimensional spaces, it can be divided into specific parts. The mind however does not occupy space and cannot be divided. The nature of the body according to Descartes was