The+Mind-Body+Distinction

If there is anything that the Early Modern period is known for, it is the distinction between the mind, or consciousness, and body, or physical things. Descartes' discussion of this distinction in his sixth //Meditations// has motivated discussion of this topic for over 350 years, both because of its clarity and because of an intrinsic problem of how entities can be "intermingled" and causally related, but yet distinct.

The Mind-Body Problem
Descartes' work in his meditations heavily features the mind-body distinction. Pedantically, this question is raised by his phrase "I think, therefore I am." The contention surounds whether one can know one exists if one is not external to oneself. Descartes attempts to solve this problem by distinguishing the mind and the body, placing them external to one another and thus each is able to perceive the other.

"...I have a distinct idea of a body, insofar as it is merely an extended thing and not a thinking thing, it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it." (//Meditation Six//)

Leibniz's Solution to the Mind-Body Problem


**Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz** (July 1, 1646 - June 21, 1716), credited for co-creating (along with Isaac Newton) the mathematical discipline of the Calculus, resolved the mind-body problem through monads, as proscribed in his //Monadology//. Likening the intrinsic and integral components of the universe to quanta (useful in his Calculus in working through how to compensate for the apparent infinite space between discrete points), monads are useful in accounting for //all// of matter--both thinking and extended things.


 * Levels of Monads:**
 * "Bare" non-sensing monads
 * "Souls" sensation monads
 * "Minds" reason monads
 * King monad, all knowing

Most monads have one location where they perceive the entire universe. The king monad perceives the universe from all locations. Humans are reasoning monads and "even though our senses are related to everything, it is impossible for our soul to attend to everything in particular; that is why our confused sensations are the result of a truly infinite variety of perceptions." (//Discourse on Metaphysics, 33//)

Locke's Solution to the Mind-Body Problem
(29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) Locke says that we do not understand how the mind can communicate to the body or how the body can influence our mind's thoughts. We don't know what the respective substances of the mind and body are, but we do know a few of their primary qualities. We know two properties of body (the solid parts and impulse), and two of the spirit (thinking and the power of action). So we understand the mind just as well as understand the spirit. He says, "//If this notion of immaterial spirit may have, perhaps, some dificulties in it not easily to be explained, we have therefore no more reason to deny or doubt the existence of body, because the notion of body is encumbered with some difficulties very hard, and perhaps impossible to be explained//." (//Essay//, xxiii.31)