René Descartes’ proposed that the mind and the body are two distinct and very different things. This “dualistic” perspective, introduced in the 17th century, continues to shape our assumed knowledge and understanding of the world, particularly in the West. It also continues to spark debates in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. Summary by The World of Work Project
Mind and Body – Separated
Most people have heard René Descartes’ famous quote “I think, therefore I am” (“Cogito, ergo sum”), but we night now know what it really relates to.
Descartes embraced skepticism and tried to disprove nearly everything he could, including his own existence. He wanted to understand the world from a fundamental set of principles that one can know as true without any doubt, and wanted to find statements he could be fully certain of.
In relation to his own place in and experience of the world, he felt that he couldn’t trust his senses to give him irrefutable proof that he was living as he perceived himself to be. He continued to challenge his sense of existing until he could find a statement that could not be refuted.
For him, this final statement that he felt could not be refuted was “I think therefor I am”. In other words, because I am thinking, I know I exist. From this starting point of thought, he went on to separate at a philosophical level the “mind” (or soul – but we don’t have time to explore that) from the body.
In doing so he created this “dual” view of people in which our “minds” are immaterial substance responsible for thinking and consciousness, and that the human “body” is a material substance governed by the laws of physics. This gives rise to the challenge of how two things that are of completely different constitution actually interact with each other. This leads to the “mind-body-problem” which has had lasting impacts on how the Western world thinks about people, health, wellbeing and our experiences in the world.
Modern debates about artificial intelligence, the nature of consciousness, and even health continue to grapple with questions that Descartes first posed.
The World of Work Project View
The separation of body and mind is deeply embedded into the way we believe the world to be, at least in the global West.
This may have slowed some of our understanding of the interaction between the mind and the body when it comes to things like our mental health, physical health, behaviours and wider wellbeing.
Increasingly, we seem to be exploring the interconnected nature of mind and body with a view to unpicking some of this sense of separation.
The word embodiment is sometimes used in this area. The world of neuroscience is exploring these connections, and occurences like the placebo effect increasing the belief in the interconected nature of mind and body.
Clearly, we are not experts in this field at all – please do read up on it more.
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Sources and Feedback
This is just from a range of things we’ve read, not from a specific source. You can learn more about Descartes, his theories and his huge contributes to science, philosophy and wester culture on his wikipedia page.
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