Knowledge & Reality Essay - Is the Mind Different from the Body?

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Although, one might contest that the mind is not separate from the body. Some believe that mental entities are just physical neuropsychological events in the brain.

A serious injury to the head can “knock out the mind” of the patient, erasing all memory of events immediately. In addition, the influence of drugs on the brain can also affect our mental entities. Similarly, through his Mind-brain Identity theory in his article, “Sensations and Brain Processes” J.C Smart argued that pain is c-fibers firing. The Mind-Brain identity theory states that sensations are just brain states/processes and that neuroscience will uncover that brain states are just mental states (Lecture).

However, thoughts and sensations do not have the same characteristics as neurological events. We can relate different experiences to different locations within the brain but unless we have prior knowledge, we cannot show that qualia reside there. For example, when I see a red stop sign, I form the image in my mind. But there is not a part of my physical brain that turns red. So, my mind has a property (property of redness) that my brain state lacks. Therefore, my mental state is not identical with my brain state, concluding they are two different entities. Moreover, I can be certain of my mental states, like pain for example. However, I cannot be certain of my brain states. Thus, mental states again cannot be identical to brain states because mental states have properties, like certainty, that brain states lack. In addition, there is not a part of the brain that sounds like high-pitched, or smells of peppermint. Thus, confirming that our minds are colorless, odorless, and tasteless, non-physical entities.

Our bodies allow us to eat, drink, walk, talk, and breathe. Our minds allow us to think, feel, desire, perceive and understand. Using modern technology, we may be able to see our brain functioning, but what we are seeing is not the mind, but the code that our brain uses to explain and decipher what we are experiencing. Through the philosophical studies of Descartes, Jackson and Smart we are able to establish that the human brain and body are just physical entities. The mind is a non-physical entity created by the brain, body and the individual and collective memories, feelings and lessons experienced by the human.

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Works Cited

Cress, Donald. "Meditation Six: Concerning the Existence of Material Things, and the

Real Distinction between Mind and Body.” Discourse on Method and Meditations

on First Philosophy. 4th ed. Hackett, 1998. 101. Print.

Jackson, Frank. “Epiphenomenal Qualia.” The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 127

(Apr., 1982), pp. 127-136

Smart, J. J. C. “Sensations and Brain Processes.” The Philosophical Review, Vol. 68, No.

2 (Apr., 1959), pp. 141-156