9Dualism and its Problems.ppt

9Dualism and its Problems The Distinct Substances Problem The fact that an individual is composed by two distinct substances runs against all contemporary neuroscience and cognitive sciences. It is hard to accept the non-corporeality of the mind. The Causality and Interaction Problem How can a non-bodily substance cause bodily movements? How can our thoughts/desires/… (qua non-extended substance) cause bodily movements? Since the mind is space-less how can it influence the body? Descartes’ answer is that the soul is united with the body. Hence the mind/body unison problem. I think that I have clearly established that the part of the body in which the soul directly exercises its functions is not the heart at all, or the whole brain. It is rather the innermost part of the brain, which is a certain very small gland in the middle of the brain’s substance and above the passage through which the spirits in the brain’s anterior cavities communicate with those in its posterior cavities. (Passions 1; CSM I: 340) A phantom limb shows, according to Descartes, that a nerve is agitated and goes to the brain producing in the soul residing in the brain a pain sensation. The Mental-or-Physical Dilemma Either we are dealing with purely physical (mechanical) or purely mental events, i.e. the perception of an incorporeal spirit. What about psycho-neural phenomena such as vision which seems to be neither purely physical nor purely mental? Imagination vs. Perception They are special modes of thinking (as such they differ from thinking, willing, doubting, …) insofar as they requires physiological activity. The difference between sense-perception and imagination is really just this, that in sense-perception the images are imprinted on the brain by external objects which are actually present, while in the case of imagination the images are imprinted by the mind without any external object, and with the windows shut, as it were. (Descartes Conversation with Bur