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Tyler Cassity
Philosophy 1000
4/27/17
Have you ever wondered where your thoughts come from? When you think that you
should do something, is it because your mind was told to think that or because your mind is
creating the idea authentically? The general idea is that we have our material part of us (physical
part), and the immaterial part (spirit/soul/mind). Are these two things separate, or the same?
Does one have influence over the other? This question has been wondered for as long as people
could think, and reflect on what the meaning of life is. Most religions hold to the belief that we
have a spirit or a soul, who will continue to embark on a journey after this life. If there is no split
between body and soul though, then what does that mean?
monism. Dualism is the idea that both the mind and the body are in fact separate things, and that
somehow they work together to create everything we know about ourselves. The opposite, is
monism, which suggests that everything is one, and there is no division between our mind and
our bodies. Many philosophers have attempted to explain this connection between mind and
body, and I think a common thought that most people have pertaining to this question is
wondering what happens when we die. Does the body die, and the another substance carry on
without it? Is the body just a vessel that our mind or spirit hold on to it? Or is our mind just the
reaction of our physical body, firing of neurons inside of our brains as a simple reaction to our
surroundings?
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The thoughts of dualism and monism can be divided even further for monistic
viewpoints. Monism can be broken into 3 sub categories; physicalism, idealism, and neutral
monism. Physicalism is the idea that the body is greater than the mind, and the mind is just a
byproduct of the physical body. Idealism is the thought that what we know as reality, is all
mentally constructed and immaterial in substance. Our minds are everything, and we are just
perceiving the physical world and all that we see; which would include our bodies. The last view
for monism, is the idea of neutral monism. This idea is that the mind and body are both
extensions from a higher up rational, and that everything the world is made of is processed and
divided to the body or the mind to comprehend. They are both neutral in that they are the two
ways of processing the information. For this project, we will be focusing on idealism, and how
Idealism is the idea that our ideas are the only things that do exist for certain, and its
priority focus is on the mind. Because of this, idealism follows the monist view that the mind is
greater than the body, and that there is no material or physical substances, just what we perceive
to be these things. The only way that anything can ever be real, is if it is perceived and the idea
of the object enters our minds. When the object is no longer in our minds, it no longer exists.
Essentially, consciousness and the contents of consciousness are the only true things that we can
know. This idea is an easy one to grasp, because we deal with our minds all day every day. If we
had to pick one thing that we know to be true, it could easily be that our minds are real.
George Berkeley was one of the most famous philosophers who pushed for the idea of
the phrase: esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived). Meaning the only way you anything can
exist, is if it is perceived. So let us say that we are looking at a tree. As long as I am looking at
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this tree, it is real. In my mind I am perceiving it, and its existence is for certain. What happens
when I leave the tree though? I carry on my daily business and leave the spot with this tree,
where I am focused on something else. Does the tree still exist? If you follow this thought of
Now this may sound strange to some people, but lets take a moment to think about what
you are seeing when you do look at that tree. First you may notice the size of the tree, or the
color of its leafs, or maybe even the smell of it; these are all perceptions of our senses though!
The idea is that we can only know what we perceive the way that we perceive it. We only
understand what we perceive because our mind is doing all the work processing it. So when we
think of the mind perceiving our world, or our bodies in that world, all we can know is that our
mind tells us these things. Our mind tells us that tree is there, but only when the tree is on our
mind.
Another example is when people missing a limb, use what is called mirror therapy. Lets
say that a person is missing there left hand. When sitting at a table, they set up a mirror so the
right arm is in sight, and in the mirror, the reflection makes it look like the persons left arm is
there. By moving the right hand, the persons vision may tell them that they are moving both
hands. This can be used to help individuals suffering from phantom pains in the limb that is no
longer attached. So this asks the question, if you trick the mind like this and the pain goes away,
Now that we have looked at one form of idealism, and how George Berkeley came up
with this idea that could potentially explain the mind body problem; lets look at things from the
other view. If all you know to be existing, is the things that are in your mind, what does that say
about other peoples minds? You have no way to perceive what any other mind is thinking, but
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your own. By following the logic that we used before, if I cannot think perceive your thoughts,
they do not exist; you do not exist. This is philosophers call metaphysical solipsism, and it is one
commonly accepted arguments against the thought of subjective idealism. Your perceptions, and
your realities are the only ones that you can know to be true and that is all you can know. We will
never know what another person is thinking or feeling, and we will never be able to see the way
the perceive the world. How can we know if we see the same blue? Why do you like a smell that
I dislike? We each have our very own independent existences, and they are all we can ever know
to be true.
In conclusion, we do not know how to solve the mind body problem, but we do have
different ideas on how to think about it. As we discussed, subjective idealism is only one of
several ways that philosophers have thought of to answer this problem. There are other views
that support the idea of one controlling the other, and there is the entire other branch that states
the mind and body are both separate and somehow interact with each other. By thinking about
our mind having full control over all perception of what we know, we can follow Berkeleys idea
that perception is the only way that anyone or anything can ever exist. We have the examples of
people overcoming pain by tricking the senses, and we know that the only thoughts we have of
the physical world are what our senses tell us about it. This may not be the perfect answer to this
problem, as we discussed with metaphysical solipsism, but it is only one way that has been
Works Cited
Kim, Sae Young, and Yun Young Kim. "Mirror Therapy for Phantom Limb Pain." The
Korean Journal of Pain. The Korean Pain Society, Oct. 2012. Web.