Descartes on the separation of body and mind

The mechanistic view of the universe assumes that the body, which is influenced and controlled by physical laws, and the ethereal world of thought and consciousness are separate from each other.

You may have wondered about the complicated relationship between your mind and your body. Philosophers have been puzzling over this for thousands of years. One of the most interesting views on this comes from René Descartes, who revolutionized the way we think about our existence. 

In his "Meditations", Descartes presented a fascinating idea: Our reality is dualistic, it consists of mind and body, two fundamentally different things. One is the mind. It is the seat of consciousness and reason, responsible for thinking, understanding and doubting. You can't touch a thought or measure a feeling in centimeters. This is what Descartes meant by the mind being "unextended" - it has no physical dimensions and cannot be measured in size or shape. This characterization of the mind brings it closer to what we might call the soul or consciousness, and distinguishes it from the tangible, material world.

In contrast, the body is tangible, physical, something you can see and touch. It takes up space, has weight and functions in the physical world. According to Descartes, the body is like a machine that works in its own world, separate from the world of thought and consciousness. In contrast to the mind, it is "extended" in space.

"Thus thinking is also possible without a body because the world is divided into two independent substances: the soul as the immaterial inner world of free thought ("res cogitans") and the physical ("res extensa"), which as pure matter follows the laws of nature."

rené Descartes

However, this dichotomy leads to an intriguing obstacle, the so-called mind-body problem: if mind and body are so fundamentally different, how do they interact? How can non-material thoughts and feelings cause physical actions in the body? Descartes himself suggested that this interaction takes place in the pineal gland of the brain - a hypothesis that is now scientifically controversial, but underlines the complexity of the issue.

Later philosophers have argued that the separation of mind and body is problematic. The numerous philosophical and practical questions about the interaction between mental and physical states. It's like trying to explain how a mind can open a door. In modern times, fields such as neuroscience are challenging this separation and showing that mental processes have physical counterparts in the brain, which argues for a more integrated view of mind and body.

Descartes' dualism undoubtedly had a profound impact. He could not explain everything, but philosophically he shifted the focus to an inner, subjective understanding of consciousness and identity. He questioned the nature of reality and asked whether what we perceive with our senses is the same as what our mind perceives. By separating the mind from the body, Descartes also inadvertently laid the foundations for later philosophical explorations into the nature of consciousness, identity and even artificial intelligence.

Whether you agree with Descartes or not, his contribution remains a cornerstone in our quest to understand the complex relationship between mind and body - a question that continues to fascinate and perplex thinkers to this day. And it was all postulated by Descartes before the Age of Enlightenment, which we think is astonishing.

If you would like to read more about Descartes' philosophical approaches, we suggest the following article:

Descartes on probability