Descartes: Descriptions of the body
- Created by: Emily Uffindell
- Created on: 15-09-14 16:12
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- Descartes: Descriptions of the body
- It's possible to doubt the existence of a body but it is not possible to doubt the existence of the soul because we are thinking, conscious beings and there must be something doing the thinking (the mind/soul)
- The body is separate from the mind (Dualism).
- "If a foot, or an arm, or another limb were amputated from the body, nothing would be taken from my mind."
- Humans (and other animals in the vertebrate group) contain a pineal gland which secretes a hormone that helps them detect light and dark and therefore informs them of the 24 cycle in nature and when to wake up/rest.
- The pineal gland was considered the "seat of the soul," as he believed that it involves sensation, imagination, the causation of bodily movements and memory.
- Thought that the Pineal gland contained animals spirits which were brought it by small, surrounding veins.
- He believed in two kinds of memories
- The memories that were stored in the hemispheres, pineal gland and the muscles.
- The memories that were stored in the soul.
- "Entirely intellectual that depends on the soul alone."
- Believed that the pineal gland gave us our basic ability to perceive, understand and judge things shared by almost all people.
- "the pineal gland is the seat of the 'sensus communis'."
- "Since it is the only part of the brain that it is single, it must be the seat of all common sense."
- The pineal gland was considered the "seat of the soul," as he believed that it involves sensation, imagination, the causation of bodily movements and memory.
- The body is indivisible (unable to be divided or separated)
- "The body by nature is indivisible, the mind is not."
- Interactionist so believed that the soul interacted with the body.
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