Essays on the Mind and the Body
My dad encouraged me a little while back to post the essays I had to write in philosophy this semester. That said, I am going to type up a few and put them on here. Feel free to tell me what you think!
On the Differences between the Mind and Body:
The body is a set of organs that work based on physiological and chemical mechanics. Although, (in our experience) one must have a body to experience having a mind, mind is very distinct from the body because it is non-material. It is not physically explainable like the body – it is just something most of us agree that we experience. Mind entails being aware of what’s going on around oneself, and having perceptions that one observes and about which one thinks. The body is something that the mind is stuck inside which is why we cannot just decide to have other peoples’ bodies instead of our own. Thus, the distinction between mind and body should now be evident.
Is Identity Relative or Universal?
Personal identity is a relative thing in some sense, but can be taken as a universal thing that each person in one’s life has. Although people identify one by one’s body, there is a quality that people are aware of within each other person that can be called identity. Ask the question, “Why am I not someone else?” It quickly follows that there is a less physical, but definite way to identify yourself because you have this closed property that you aren’t anyone else but you. I say this, though it is true that there are mental disorders that some people have with which sometimes they are not aware of whom they are, and maybe even think they are “someone else”. This unsureness should not take away from the concept of that person’s identity though; only their perception of whom they are is flawed.
How do the Mind and Body Influence Each Other?
The mind and body influence each other in several ways. The mind is what takes into account how the body perceives the world in which it lives. In this respect, the mind is limited in what it experiences because it looks at everything through a sometimes (and arguably most times) flawed perception. The body is also the tool through which we exert the mind’s decisions. Since the body is limited in the physic sense, the mind is affected. The body must obey physical laws regardless of whether the mind wants to or not.
While the body has its effect on the mind, the mind has its effect on the body, as well. Though some physical actions by the body are reflexive, the mind has a certain amount of control over the body. I can think and, by doing so, make my body move. I also have the ability to make decisions that affect me physically that my body might not like. For instance, I can choose not to eat for a long period of time, even when my stomach tells me to eat. I can also convince myself things about religious phenomena that my body tells me are not possible. Therefore, the mind affects the body in being able to ignore the messages it sends to the mind and in sending messages to the body.
Thus, it should be clear that the mind and body affect each other intimately.
Does One’s Identity Persist Beyond Bodily Death?
Identity does! When a person dies, we are still able to talk about that person and identify who they were, so their identity must remain in tact. How could it be said that identity goes away? Just because a person’s body stops working does not mean they from then on cannot be said to be who they were, even if we are unsure of whom that person was. The number 1 will always be identified by the fact that a*1 = a, but in the equation a^2 = a*a, the identity of 1 still holds even though it is not seen in the latter.
Identity is universal. It is truth, but we all perceive things with a bit of relativity. When someone dies, we aren’t sad (or happy?) because that person lost their identity. We react that way because that person that we identify, in the present tense, as being that person we used to know is no longer able to communicate and interact with us in the physical sense. Their absence in the domain of life may or may not affect us, but the only reason why we can identify their absence is because they still have their identity.
This example should clarify the persistence of a person’s identity in the realm in which our minds believe to live. (…whether or not they agree which realm that is…) =)
That is the last one I’ll post. I’ll post more on other topics in the future.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
and our mind has memories of their identity!
And what about the identity of God? People seem to attach different identities to him depending on their own mind. What is God’s identity to himself? Though some would say he has no identity….
December 16th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I think that if God exists (and I believe he/she/it (?) does), he definitely would have an identity to himself. I think all of us, if we have heard of God, have our own conception of God’s identity, but concepts do not necessarily conceive reality accurately…
December 17th, 2008 at 10:33 am
True that. So how many people are that honest and go searching for his reality and not their own conceptions.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:41 am
We can not escape our own realities. No matter how hard we search, it is impossible to find the reality of a “God,” if there is one, because it so far exceeds the possibilities of the human mind.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:52 am
As for Bill’s discussion of identity, I agree and I disagree. One’s personal identity is very different from how he or she is identified by others. The concept of self, to be more accurate, is really all a person has. Upon death, it cannot be said whether or not personal identity persists, as nothing of experience after death can be known. The process of identification is a process that occurs in the present. After a person dies, he or she is no longer identified; instead, he or she is remembered, and this is something vastly different.