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Illustration of mind–body dualism by René Descartes.Inputs are passed by the sensory organs to the pineal gland, and from there to the immaterial spirit.. The mind–body problem is a philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind and body.
Descartes clearly identified the mind with consciousness and self-awareness and distinguished this from the physical brain as the seat of intelligence. [8] Hence, he was the first documented Western philosopher to formulate the mind–body problem in the form in which it exists today. [9]
Interactionism was propounded by the French rationalist philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650), and continues to be associated with him. Descartes posited that the body, being physical matter, was characterized by spatial extension but not by thought and feeling, while the mind, being a separate substance, had no spatial extension but could think and feel. [2]
Illustration of mind–body dualism by René Descartes. Inputs are passed by the sensory organs to the pineal gland, and from there to the immaterial spirit. The mind–body problem concerns the explanation of the relationship that exists between minds, or mental processes, and bodily states or processes. [1]
A human was, according to Descartes, a composite entity of mind and body. Descartes gave priority to the mind and argued that the mind could exist without the body, but the body could not exist without the mind. In The Meditations, Descartes even argues that while the mind is a substance, the body is composed only of "accidents". [106]
Although the mind and body remain distinct from one another the union of them can still be considered to be the cartesian self [7] Descartes claims in his sixth meditation further how we are not merely just a soul using a body since he has made the distinction between the mind and body while also proving that the mind and body form a union ...
Developments in psychology, based on studies focusing on the relationship between the mind and brain make it difficult to accept Descartes' contention that the mind can exist without the body. Further, empirical and philosophical work has shown that the mind, or consciousness, develops as a result of social, linguistic, and cultural influence.
The problem of the Passions treatise is also the problem of Cartesian dualism. In the first part of his work, Descartes ponders the relationship between the thinking substance and the body. For Descartes, the only link between these two substances is the pineal gland (art. 31), the place where the soul is attached to the body.