How Things Work – A Brief History of Reality
Book I – Dualism (Descartes' Understanding of Mind)
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Tuesday, January 25, 2022
“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” – George Orwell (1984)
CONSIDERATION #15 – Descartes’ Understanding of “Mind”
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
It is sometimes difficult to grasp exactly what Descartes’ understanding of the mind is. First, and foremost, the mind is not physical, as we have previously discussed. Unlike the brain, which interprets physical sensation, or stimulus, the mind represents the faculty of perception that allows us to understand that a triangle is something more than just an object with three sides. The brain can recognize that a triangle has three sides, but it cannot inherently interpret and intuit the multitude of various mathematical possibilities and connections within that simple shape.
“Since Descartes sees physical reality as geometrical extension in space, physical reality is an abstraction that is interpreted through the mind, not the brain.”
The mind can recognize, intuit, and understand the underlying metaphysical principles and attributes of a triangle. It is this ability that makes mathematical thinking possible. This is why we can create complicated systems, such as geometry, that allow abstract possibilities to become manifested into the “real” world. For example, the mind recognizes the triangle as a plane, which is the first step in creating physical reality. Since Descartes sees physical reality as geometrical extension in space, physical reality is an abstraction that is interpreted through the mind, not the brain. In addition, once recognized and understood, non-physical abstractions can be physically manifested into the three-dimensional world of reality. The mind represents a vast reservoir of abstract possibilities waiting to become physically real.
“However, he recognizes properties such as color, taste, and pain as abstract ‘psychological’ properties that are not physical, therefore not real…”
The mind encounters and interprets a wide variety of non-measurable abstractions including mathematics, thoughts, dreams, and most importantly for Descartes, specific mental perceptions resulting from the five senses. Descartes recognizes a physical reality, as well as a physiological reality related to it resulting from physical sensation. However, he recognizes properties such as color, taste, and pain as abstract “psychological” properties that are not physical, therefore not real in the physical sense. The physical world would become the domain of scientific inquiry. The physiological world related to it would become the dominion of western medicine. The abstract psychological aspect of human experience would become dominated by the influence of religion, and later the social sciences.
“Physical actions are ultimately dictated by our will to implement them.”
Another key factor in understanding Descartes’ conception of mind is that it is connected to “will.” Physical actions are ultimately dictated by our will to implement them. For example, what does it really take to sink the eight ball and win a game of pool? A lot. We scan the table. Access information. Make a decision about what action to take and then boldly predict, “eight ball in the corner pocket!” Decide to hit the cue ball, knocking it into the eight ball at a precise twenty-three-degree angle; banking the eight ball into the side of the table at a forty-six-degree angle causing it to ricochet off at a sixty-four-degree angle and gently fall into the corner pocket. How exactly does all that occur? How does thinking about something make it happen? How do even the simple actions we perform without thinking really work and take place? What is the connection between the abstraction of intention and the actuality of physical results?
“Human beings can choose to change their reality.”
It is our capacity to access abstractions through our minds in conjunction with our ability to transform those abstractions into physical reality that separates human beings from all other animals on earth. Human beings can make rational choices. Human beings can choose to change their reality. For Descartes, all of this was possible only because of a rational God who endowed human beings with a rational mind.
CONSIDERATION #15: Descartes’ Understanding of “Mind”
The Nature of Mind
When someone says “I am thinking, therefore I am, or I exist,” he does not deduce existence from thought by means of a syllogism, but recognizes it as something self-evident by a simple intuition of the mind… It is in the nature of our mind to construct general propositions on the basis of our knowledge of particular ones.
– Rene Descartes
As a rationalist, Descartes argued that we learn the essence of things not through our interaction with them on a sensual, or physical level, but through our mind, or intellect. We can intuit the concept of “triangle” because we have an a priori knowledge that allows us to recognize the concept “triangle” intrinsically as having three sides, not because our senses tell us that a triangle has three sides. This a priori knowledge exists in our mind, or intellect, as a “clear and distinct perception” outside of the physical realm; the world of the intellect is a world of abstraction that is not measurable in the physical world but translated through the mind. Here is how it works.
“According to Descartes, properties such as color are essentially a result of mind.”
Descartes’ physics consisted of measurable concepts such as mass, velocity, and extension, whereas his metaphysics consisted of concepts such as red, round, and triangle. However, while physiology contains concepts such as neuron, glial cell, and visual cortex, it does not contain a concept of color. So, if “color” is not a physical or physiological concept, what is it? According to Descartes, properties such as color are essentially a result of mind. Even today, colors such as “red” are considered psychological terms. So, what is the connection between physical, physiological, and psychological experiences?
“…he argues that not all of these qualities are ‘real’ in physical terms, being actually only simply modes, or secondary qualities, of existence…”
Descartes deduced that physical sensation gives us the illusion that there are many different properties in the world and that they possess unique qualities such as color, taste, smell, sound, heat, cold, pain etc. However, he argues that not all of these qualities are “real” in physical terms, being actually only simply modes, or secondary qualities, of existence that do not have any physical attributes whatsoever. (They are not body; having no extension in space.) In that sense, they are not real.
Consider that under hypnotic suggestion someone could be influenced to “interpret” the taste of red hot chilies as an ice cream sundae, as the audience roars with laughter at the hilarious “misinterpretation.” Because the subject’s “mind” has been convinced the chilies are “really” an ice cream sundae that is what the “mind” tastes, which is what the subject experiences. Experiences of the senses, such as color, taste and smell, have no reality except in our minds.
“When we say we perceive colors in objects, this is really just the same as saying that we perceive something in the objects whose nature we do not know, but which produces in us a certain very clear and vivid sensation which we call the sensation of color.”
– Descartes
The Mind-Body problem revolves around how the non-physical “thoughts” and “perceptions” in our mind turn into the physical actions produced throughout our body and how our will or intent makes it all possible. Descartes maintains that there is a mysterious link that joins the mind to the body, but that the mind and body are different things. That means the mind will outlive the body, being nonphysical, and therefore not subject to death. This opens the door to the concept of an immortal human soul which informs and animates us. Consider the following simple example involving the mind-body conundrum:
“What happens, if anything, for example, when we decide to do even such a simple thing as to lift up a cup and take a sip of coffee? The arm moves, but it is difficult to see how the thought or desire could make that happen.”
Descartes and the Discovery of the Mind-Body Problem – Jonathan Westphal
Descartes makes an important distinction between the intellect, which is crafted by God, and the human will, which is our ability to choose a reaction regarding the intellect’s recommendation. Our free will allows us to affirm or deny what our mind, or intellect, tells us. If through our own free will we affirm something that is not true, despite the true knowledge provided by our reason, it is our will that is at fault, not the mind. The difficulty lies in discerning when the will has made a mistake. Descartes argues that if we resolve to only believe what we have authentically proven to ourselves through reason, then we will be able to distinguish between what is clear and certain from what is false and mistaken. As discussed earlier, this is accomplished through the scientific method which Descartes established.
“Examples of self-evident eternal truths would include Descartes proclamation that ‘I think therefore I am…’”
Another critical aspect of the mind for Descartes was its ability to recognize and discern eternal and self-evident truth. Examples of self-evident eternal truths would include Descartes proclamation that “I think therefore I am,” or other possible instances such as “It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be at the same time.” or “He who thinks cannot but exist while he thinks.” These represent statements of fact that through reason are immediately perceived as true statements. Mathematical proofs are also considered eternal, or self-evident, truths.
“While not having a ‘real’ physical existence, Descartes suggests that they have a kind of ‘intentional’ existence in the world.”
Although there are no concrete, or measurable, proofs in the physical world to establish these insights, Descartes argues that we must in fact agree that they do exist in some way; they exist in the abstract world of the mind, or intellect. While not having a “real” physical existence, Descartes suggests that they have a kind of “intentional” existence in the world. In other words, the mind is the realm of potential, or possible, existence. The physical expression of that world is manifested through geometry, physics, and mathematics. However, the potential, or possible, expression of that world is manifested through the mind.
“Thinking about eternal truths doesn’t make them real, rather, they exist ‘already’ as things that can be thought about…”
Thinking about eternal truths doesn’t make them real, rather, they exist “already” as things that can be thought about, and conceived of, through abstraction and reason. However, utilizing the same reasoning, our mind is also capable of transforming those nonphysical abstractions into physical reality.
POSTSCRIPT
Okay, take a deep breath! Many of you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed about it all; don’t worry. What’s important to understand right now is that Descartes upgraded Plato’s and Aristotle’s original metaphysics in a way that would alter Western Civilization by establishing a duality of the “real” world of physicality and the “abstract” world of the mind. Metaphysics and abstractions related to the physical world, such as mathematics, became a new manifestation of rational science that would radically alter our perception of reality in a historically very short period of time. However, metaphysics related to other abstractions, such as the nature of “mind,” became the rational influence informing institutional Christian dogma and theology, as well as its more modern alternative the social sciences. There, Descartes’ understanding of “mind” found a new incarnation.
Next week we will consider how Descartes’ understanding of “mind” leads to the concept of a “rational soul” and solidifies the theology and dogma of the Catholic Church and modern Christianity.
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