Descartes was a very smart man. He decided to start at zero, and to forget
everything he’d been told, to just start thinking for himself and forming his
own philosophy, which must’ve been difficult.
I know from my perspective it would be hard. I used to be very, very easily
influenced. It wasn’t until recently
that I found the confidence in myself to realize I could think for myself and
make my own decisions. I don’t always
have to listen to others. But Descartes,
he completely disregarded everything he’d been told, and doubted it.
He wanted to know what he knew…confusing right? He wanted to understand what he could figure
out with his reason without relying on anything else.
Anyway, that’s not actually what I wanted to talk
about. I just think it’s crazy and
impressive that he found a way to do that.
But one of the other things that Descartes tried to figure out was how
the mind and body were connected. It
seems pretty obvious that they are, because humans have both…but how?
It was pretty well accepted at the time that the body is
like a machine. Like a computer, it
doesn’t do anything it isn’t programmed to do.
So, because of that idea, some people believed the mind was a machine
too. They believed that everything we
did and thought was predetermined.
Well, I find that a little hard to swallow. I don’t like thinking that I’m just some sort
of puppet with no control over my own decisions, and maybe that’s a pride
issue. But what’s the point of spending
our time trying to take control of our own lives just to be told we aren’t in
control at all?
I’m not denying the existence of God in this statement, just
to clarify. Some say that God controls
us but I don’t feel that’s the case. My
personal belief is that we do have free will, and our minds are capable of
making decisions. God may know what we
are going to choose but he doesn’t do it for us. And that is why I have such a hard time
believing that our mind is just a mechanical thing.
Descartes didn’t believe that either. In a way, he completely separated mind from
body because they are different…but here’s the catch. How can they be separate but connected? Because a lot of what our body does is
programmed by our mind, but they are obviously different. Descartes said that the mind was stronger
than the body, which I think is true. In
many ways, an army of powerful thinkers is more dangerous than one made up of
body builders. Both are effective, but
the army of thinkers will probably leave an even more powerful impression,
because they have the capability to make you question things.
In history, violence
never seems to get us anywhere, and violent revolts are usually crushed by the
government anyways. But people who
think, who speak about their thoughts, and make others think…those are the
people that are seen as the most dangerous.
So if the mind is stronger, does that just make our bodies
the puppets? Do we only have a body to
house our minds? But in that case, what
is the point of having a body at all? Why not just have minds floating
around? But if we didn’t have things of
substance in the world, then what would our minds have to question? What would we think about if there was
nothing solid around us?
The way I see it, a mind without a body is lost. And a body without a mind is lost. They need each other, and maybe that
necessity is what connects them and keeps them together.
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