The Mind: Cartesian Substance Dualism Part 2
August 20th 2008 16:13
While the Cartesian conception of the mind can be appealing, insofar as it offers the possibility of some kind of life beyond the mortal coil, it is rife with flaws.
One of the major objections to this take on the mind is that is seems unlikely, if not impossible, for a non-material mental substance to control a material physical substance. The question becomes: "What is the means, or mechanism, for the required communication?"
Descartes answers this question by citing something that he calls "animal spirits" (tiny bodies that travel through the blood) which would communicate the mind's messages to the body. Naturally, this "solution" is equally problematic since the tiny bodies are still material entities and subject to the same communication problem as the larger human form.
There cannot be a connection between the mind and body at a physical level because the mind is inherently non-physical in nature.
The other major objection is one of evolution. If evolution is a process of natural selection, governed by physical laws, how does a non-physical substance arise? Given the substantial evidence for the reality of evolution, this question is not one that can be avoided. There would seem to be no call for, nor a cause of, a non-physical substance. Such a substance would seem to defy all of the principles of the physical universe. The laws of entropy, in particular, would seem to stand in direct contradiction of such a substance. The tendency for all things to seek a simpler, static state would undermine the potential for a very complicated substance that is not subject to any laws of decay.
While Cartesian Substance Dualism has fallen out of favor as an explanatory system for the mind-body problem, it still influences and directs, in many ways, the course of how we discuss the problem philosophically. Any system that will be ultimately accepted has no alternative but to offer a solution to these two problems. As you will see when we move on in the following articles, these problems are not readily solved.
One of the major objections to this take on the mind is that is seems unlikely, if not impossible, for a non-material mental substance to control a material physical substance. The question becomes: "What is the means, or mechanism, for the required communication?"
Descartes answers this question by citing something that he calls "animal spirits" (tiny bodies that travel through the blood) which would communicate the mind's messages to the body. Naturally, this "solution" is equally problematic since the tiny bodies are still material entities and subject to the same communication problem as the larger human form.
The other major objection is one of evolution. If evolution is a process of natural selection, governed by physical laws, how does a non-physical substance arise? Given the substantial evidence for the reality of evolution, this question is not one that can be avoided. There would seem to be no call for, nor a cause of, a non-physical substance. Such a substance would seem to defy all of the principles of the physical universe. The laws of entropy, in particular, would seem to stand in direct contradiction of such a substance. The tendency for all things to seek a simpler, static state would undermine the potential for a very complicated substance that is not subject to any laws of decay.
While Cartesian Substance Dualism has fallen out of favor as an explanatory system for the mind-body problem, it still influences and directs, in many ways, the course of how we discuss the problem philosophically. Any system that will be ultimately accepted has no alternative but to offer a solution to these two problems. As you will see when we move on in the following articles, these problems are not readily solved.
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