Michael Morrison
Psych 120
3/25/12
Word Count: 600
Mind and Matter Consciousness and thoughts are separate from the body because of various events that have experienced, witnessed or have read studies about. “What is real?”, three major theories have emerged from this puzzling question. This question refers to the mind-body problem. Philosophers usually find themselves siding with some form of idealism, materialism or dualism. Before accepting a theory, they cannot reasonably do so without understanding the other respected alternative theories.
Lets start by tackling the theory I find the most entertaining, idealism.
Reality to an idealist is basically laid out in the movie the Matrix. They basically believe reality is just a projection of our minds. Our world is just made up of ideas or ideas in our minds. In short, ideas are the only reality and the physical world is nonexistent. One could also take the physical approach and say that everything is physical. The mind is simply made of a combination of physical objects or events. Materialists believe that the mind is the same thing as our brain. Nothing exists besides matter and its manipulation or movement. Materialist struggle the most with explaining consciousness and intellect. As we dive deeper into thought, I will guide you through and lead to the ultimate conclusion that dualism is the most accurate theory and has the most experiences and research to support it.
Hobbes, a materialist, believed that everything is made up of atoms. Have you ever tried to explain consciousness in a psychical sense or atoms? I’m not even sure it is possible and if you think it is, you will undoubtly have a very hard time breaking consciousness down into something physical. Descartes once said, “I think, therefore I am.” To me, Descartes has proven the one thing we can be sure about is Consciousness. So why should we believe it doesn’t exist?
An event that has defined some of my ideals about the mind and body problem has formed from my own experience with surgery. Before I was completely knocked out by anesthesia, everything started to spin as I laid on the table. My viewpoint started to float upwards. As I got close to the ceiling, my viewpoint began to vertically rotate until I could see my body laying on the table with surgeon’s attending to and prepping
