Chinese Room Argument Analysis

To what extent if any is Descartes successful in showing there is a real distinction between mind and body

This week we have been talking about Descartes view on brain and Mind “Dualist views”. Descartes believes that the brain and the mind are two completely different things. He also thinks that if you have brain damage then you also have mind damage because they are connected to each other in a way.

Descartes’ argue that mind is better known than body by first claiming humans as fundamentally rational, meaning “a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling,” ( Descartes, 19) he therefore argues that humans have the ability to know their proper minds clearly and distinctly. He proposes the conception of the mind where the imagination and the senses are also inherent capabilities of the body (faculties), specifically powers of the mind.

     This is where the wax argument comes into play. All the properties of the piece of wax that we perceive with the senses change as the wax melts. This is true as well of its primary properties, such as shape, extension and size. Yet the wax remains the same piece of wax as it melts. We know the wax through our mind and judgement, not through our senses or imagination. Therefore, every act of clear and distinct knowledge of corporeal matter also provides even more certain evidence for the existence of Descartes as a thinking thing. Therefore his mind is much clearer and more distinctly know to him than his body. At this

Summary: The problem of the soul continues as Descartes suggested that the human is composed of two completely different substances; a physical body which Descartes compares with a machine, and a non-physical mind, related to the soul, that allows humans to think and feel even if it has no “measurable dimensions” (67). But Elizabeth put in doubt his ideologies when she realized that a non-physical thing doesn’t have the strength to push and move the body. This led to several questions unanswered and also let space for other materialist theories such as behaviorism, mind-brain identity, and functionalism, which also fail in offering an explicit solution.

Descartes had a very mechanistic view of the brain. He believed the body works similar to machines as it is material and follows laws of physics. He suggests that mind and body interact at the pineal gland. He predicted that there are tube-like structures inside our bodies that tighten under

(Cole, David) Searle (1984) organizes a three premise argument: “ Programs are purely formal (syntactic). Human minds have mental contents (semantics). Syntax by itself is neither constitutive of, nor sufficient for, semantic content.”

Descartes theory was that the mind and soul were two different things. They were separate from each other. He believed that the body was an extension, something that only does physical things. According, to Descartes the body was not made for thinking. Thus,

In conclusion, this paper has explained Descartes view on bodies and animals, and analyzed whether Descartes believed that animals had minds. Explanation of Descartes view of minds and bodies has been provided, indicating that he believed that the mind and body were “tightly jointed”, as well as, his view of how the body would act without a mind. From these explanations, we have been able to conclude and explain why that Descartes would believe that animal do have minds.

Descartes says the mind is distinct from the body, or anything physical for that matter. He says, a thinking substance is nonphysical or spiritual in nature (mind), and an extended substance is physical, but not capable of consciousness or thought (body). However, this very claim is also his biggest problem as his mind – body interaction has many critics and to some, can seem invalid. This is mainly due to the challenge by those who ask how mind and body can interact if they are two different substances altogether. Over Descartes' period of teaching, he has conceived many arguments to support his view of

Throughout his work Discourse on the Method, Rene Descartes discusses the things he believes to be true concerning thought. He discusses the things which he believes to be more perfect and the things which he believes to be less perfect (pt 2, para 1). When comparing the two, he eventually comes to the conclusion that things that are more perfect are constructed by fewer hands and have specific purpose (pt 2, para 1). He also introduces in the opening portion of his work that his opinion of good sense is the ability to judge rightly and to follow through with the judgments (pt. 1, para 1). He concludes his writing by explaining that he believes that thinking is a non-mechanistic action, and he makes several points to confirm this (pt. 5, para 10). Descartes makes claims that sometimes compare thinking to the workings of a machine. However, he is correct in saying that thinking is a non-mechanistic action. Because human beings’ thought processes are not mechanical, we must take care to use good sense in order to make right judgment.

I agree, when walking into the Guo Pei exhibit, your use of the word "breathtaking," is very appropriate. Like you said, with the dresses being shown off individually, giving each their own spotlight in SCADfash was definitely very pleasing to the eye, and this allowed us to take the time and respect the intense craftsmanship of each. I did also like how dresses with similar color schemes were grouped together, like how in the back right of the exhibit, there was a group of four blue and white dresses, which together as a set was very beautiful to witness. Each felt individual, but each maintained Guo Pei's beautiful traditional Chinese style, linking all of them together. I also agree with you that there wasn't a weak piece in the exhibit,

One of the most lasting legacies of Descartes’ philosophy is the thesis in which he argues that the mind and body are distinct. This thesis is called the “mind-body dualism.” Descartes reaches this supposition by arguing that the nature of the mind is very different from the body, so therefore it is entirely possible for one to exist without the other. This mind-body argument forms the basis for the causative interaction that is still debated to this day: how is the mind able to cause some of our body limbs to move, and how can the body’s sense organs cause sensations in the mind when their natures are entirely different? Descartes’ response to this is quite simple: he states that a

Descartes has a very distinct thought when thinking about the mind, and how it relates to the body, or more specifically then brain. He seems to want to explain that the mind in itself is independent from the body. A body is merely a physical entity that could be proven to be true scientifically and also can be proven through the senses. Such things are not possible with the meta-physical mind because it is independent of the body. Building on his previous premises, Descartes finally proves whether material things exist or not and determines whether his mind and body are separate from each other or not. In Meditation Six, Descartes lays the foundation for dualism which has become one of the most important arguments in philosophy.

This explains how a body can exist without a mind but does not explain how a mind can exist without a body. There is no example that shows where a mind exists on its own. God might be an example of this because he is a perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, infinite being who we would think must have a mind but to attribute a human mind to God would be anthropomorphizing him. In order to prove Descartes argument there should be an example of when a mind exists completely on its own.