I dont believe that the mind is split from the rest of the body. The first instance that comes to my mind to try and prove this is the case of Phineas Gage. For those of you who dont know the story I will give a brief overview but you can read more here.
Phineas was a 25 year old railroad worker who was in charge of adding the blasting powder. There was an accident where the metal rod he was using was blasted up and through his head. The injury was not fatal but damaged his frontal lobe. After a long recovery he was able to function as before, but because of the damage he had sustained to his frontal lobe his personality changed. It is reported that his friends didnt find him to be the same person after the accident.
To me this is a very simple example that the mind and brain/body are same. Another reason I feel this way is that I am a strong believer in evolution. I feel that all life started as a simple life structure and after mutations and selections we ended up at the human race. All of this is physical material so where would a non-physical mind come from?
Ah! Yes, Phineas Gage. I learned about him in psych last year. This is great example and similar to what I was trying to get at. If you can alter someone's physical form (in Phineas’s case a blow to the brain) and it changes their mental state (I believe he became much more moody, aggressive, and disagreeable, right?) then how aren’t the two connected? I made the same connection with lobotomies. And you can also see it in split brain and countless other types of surgeries. Ultimately I completely agree with you. Really - where would a non-physical mind come from?
ReplyDeleteI agree, but to play devil's advocate; Of course that changes your personality! It's a problem with your BRAIN, and the cartesian split considers brain to be separate from body. So a blow to the head effects the mind because the head is the mind. If the man had lost an arm and that had ended up changing his personality, then we would have something to talk about.
ReplyDeleteAnd if a man DID lose an arm, do you think it might 'change his personality'? CF: 127 hours, say.
ReplyDelete