Introduction

Philosophy of the mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind and how it is related to the body. Arguments made by philosophers about the philosophy of the mind include those of Descartes who argue that the mind and the body are two different substances and that the ultimate source of knowledge is reasoning. Locke argues that the source of knowledge is experience and no ideas are present in the mind. Berkeley argues that nothing exists except for the mind and soul.

Descartes argues that despite him being able to doubt that his body exists, he cannot doubt that his mind exists. According to him, thinking cannot be separated from him, and concludes that he is a thinking thing with the ability to doubt, understand, and affirm. He continues about him being a thing that also denies, has imaginations, and also has sense perception (Rozemond 2009). Descartes on sense perception argues that even if the objects of sight and sense perception might not be in existence, it is still undeniable that a person has visual and auditory perceptions. These conclusions make it clear to him that the mind and body are different and each of them has a different important nature. The world can appear as it is to the mind, but the bodies to which we take them to match may not exist.

The key aspects of the Cartesian philosophy of the mind according to Descartes are that it creates a position known as Cartesian, and dualism which is the body and mind being different substances (Rozemond 2009). It sets up the possibility of different kinds of skepticism not only about the external world but the existence of other minds as well. It views the mind as an arena that is private to a thinker depending on what a person perceives on the arena. It includes thought, which not only incorporates understanding, imagination among others but also feeling and it finally represents a thoughtful dismissal of the earlier way the soul was thought about. Descartes argues that the soul or the mind only exists in humans and every nonhuman existing creature is an ordinary mechanism. He perceives the human body as an ordinary mechanism that God has given a mind and soul.

Locke argued that sensory knowledge is the only knowledge that exists and all ideas can only be explained in terms of experience. He argued that if a person had inborn ideas and understanding that is not a result of experience, then every being that has a mind has to be conscious of them. He gave an example of how people don’t understand mathematics and some never being able to learn. Locke argued that if humans can be present without being aware of an idea, then it cannot be inborn. According to Locke, sensations and reflections are the two kinds of experiences (Anstey 2015). Certain information that human beings gain is from reflection and the other from sensation, or even gained from the two. Reflection enables human beings to be aware of their mental developments and therefore explains how the mind works. Locke described reflection as an internal sense because it includes experiences such as willing, thinking, doubting among others that do not match up to external objects. Sensations come from the external incentives and convey to us about the outside world.

According to Locke, the two kinds of sensations include those which correspond to primary and secondary elements. The primary elements are related to features which include dimension, form, and magnitude whereas secondary properties match up to qualia, for example, pigment, sound, and feeling.  Locke argued about the problem of secondary makings by highlighting the impossibility of knowing whether different people experience the same qualia. (Anstey 2015). Locke supported causal realism which is the understanding that human beings can develop the being of external substances from the qualia they raise in them. Locke asserted that the primary elements of an object represents its real nature and are accountable for prompting the secondary elements that human beings go through in their existence. He also stated that he did not think that human beings can understand the way external objects give rise to qualia. Locke dismissed Descartes dualism by suggesting that there is a possibility that the mind and body could involve being made of the same substance

Berkeley argues that except for ideas and spirits which are the mind and soul, nothing else exists. He differentiated three kinds of ideas which are, ones that originate from sense experience and are similar perception ideas of Locke.  Some originate from being present in the passion and how the mind functions and this matches up with the reflection idea of Locke. Finally, some originate from the compounding, sharing, or signifying ideas. Berkeley's meaning of spirits is one simple, undivided, active being, and the spirit’s activity is composed of understanding which is the spirit’s perceiving ideas, and willing which is the spirit’s producing ideas (Dicker 2011). According to Berkeley, physical objects such as chairs and tables are a collection of sensible ideas. This is because no idea can exist outside the mind, hence chairs and other furniture only exist if they are in the mind of a person and only if they have been perceived. Berkeley argues that though human beings are not perceiving an object, God is and it is the thought of God that enables the unperceived object to exist. He argued that saying that colors, tables, cats are ideas is not saying that they do not exist rather it is saying what they are. He supported his argument by asserting that things perceived by sense are ideas and so physical things are ideas. He also states that sensations do not exist with no ideas.  Berkeley refuted Descartes’s and Locke’s arguments arguing that since all the things that human beings go through come from the mind, the only theory that is present is idealism, the interpretation that physical objects are not in existence. He concluded by stating that because nothing can be in existence deprived of a mind to perceive it, then the external domain has to be existent within God’s mind.

Conclusion

The philosophy of the mind is a study done by different philosophers explaining about the mind and how it is related to the body. Descartes dualism argues that the mind and body are two different substances and that each of them has a different important nature. Locke argues that all ideas can only be explained in terms of experience and the only knowledge that exists is the sensory knowledge. He refutes Descartes's dualism by suggesting that the body and mind could be made of the same substance. According to Berkeley, the only things that exist are ideas and spirits whereby the spirit’s activity consists of understanding which perceives ideas and will which produces ideas.

References

Anstey, P. R. (2015). John Locke and the philosophy of mind. Journal of the History of

Philosophy, 53(2), 221-244.

Dicker, G. (2011). Berkeley's idealism: A critical examination. New York: Oxford University

Press.

Rozemond, M., & Rozemond, M. (2009). Descartes's dualism. Harvard University Press.