...and using the categories he uses, what view of the mind/body problem do you think is exhibited by Picard? By Maddox? Support your answer. Upon completion of the readings, and having watched the episode “The Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: New Generations I have come to the conclusion that Picard has a very materialistic view of the mind/body problem stating that “Man is a wholly material being” (Hasker, 69). Meanwhile Maddox holds a very dualistic view of the problem, in which he believes “physical properties…are properties of the body, while mental properties are properties of the mind” (Hasker, 65). Picard sees Data, his android officer, as being able to make the same kinds of decision and having the same kinds of feelings any other human being is able to have. This leads me to believe that Picard’s view is that the mind is not separate from the body, thus he has a very materialistic view of the mind/body problem. While Maddox on the other hand believes a very different way. This of course causes much tension between the two. Maddox apparently believes that there is a mind and a body completely separate, and for a Being to be human and sentient it must be able to be intelligent, self-aware, and conscious. He believes that Data does indeed have a brain, but cannot possibly have a mind, since the mind is separate from the brain. Maddox’s main claim is that Data, like a computer, has no feelings, basically has no soul or mind with which he could have feelings. Therefore Data...
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...1. I feel the view that Commander Picard took on the disputes over the mind/body problem was emergentism. Commander Picard is fully aware that Data is simply just a machine, but he is also fully aware that Data is capable of having desires, interests, and inclinations. Data has proved these capabilities to Commander Picard over and over again by formulating relationships and making free choices. While proving these capabilities to Commander Picard it shows that Data has both mental and physical properties. When having mental properties it permits Data to have human capabilities like feeling, wanting, and needing. When having physical properties it permits Data to have human capabilities like color, size, and shape without actually being human. Data is a machine, but like a human, he is aware of his existence and actions. I feel the view that Commander Maddox took on the dispute over the mind/body problem was materialism. Commander Maddox is also well aware that Data is simply just a machine, but that is all he feels Data is. Data is an idea conceived of by the mind of man. Software written by man. Hardware built by man. Data is a physical organism functioning according to natural laws. Data lacks the crucial aspects of human existence-morality, rationality, aesthetic experience. and religion. Maddox feels that just because Data looks like a human does not give him any human characteristics. Data was made by man and will be the property of man. 2. I feel that the three...
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...Androids and the Mind/Body Problem In a Star Trek, episode of The Next Generation, Captain Picard of the enterprise is left with the job of defending an android by the name of Data, whom believes he has the right to say no to a direct order for him to be disassembly by the Commander Bruce Maddox. Although Data is an Androids which basically is a machine, Picard defends him using the dualism theory. Picard shows that Data has two aspects, he is a machine but like humans Data processes a body and mind, which are not identical even though his mind is program he is able to make decisions on his own. I think Data is a perfect example of the dualism theory; he has the elements which are mention above, so many philosophers have debated whether there is such a thing as a soul with Data Picard did not need to establish that. Data is the perfect display of the Mind/Body problem, the issue between mind and matter, whether he is a person or property. Picard saw an entity that had a body and mind, an entity with the dualism theory; having both a body and mind wouldn’t that make you a person? I would think a body and a mind that can function on its own would be considered a person. Commander Bruce Maddox saw Data as machine, he saw him for what he was built to be, and to do serve mankind. To the Commander Data was an object. I see the Mind /Body problem Commander Bruce Maddox was having; in fact some of those problems would have worked in his...
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...There is a wide variety of categories into which all things in the world can be divided. There are natural and unnatural phenomena; things created by mankind and those we consider to be product of the Supreme Mind; there is flora and there is fauna; there are things that we can modify and things that humans have no control over. One of the many ways to differentiate and classify everything and anything in the surrounding environment and, probably, one of the most universal ways, is to classify things as being either material or immaterial. It seems fairly easy to distinguish between the two. If we cannot touch, feel or see something, then it becomes the notion of the immaterial world. The rest belongs to the material things, which we can own, trade, purchase, possess, lose or give away. When Rene Descartes, one of the founders of the modern-day western philosophical science, laid the groundwork for his epistemological perspective called Cartesian Dualism, he was coming exactly from the same universal idea. The thoughts and hypotheses that Descartes tried so hard, throughout his lifetime’s work, to develop into axioms and prove to be fundamentally true, surprisingly remain highly debatable and are still largely in question. Philosophy is very much about the question of certainty. To a great extent, from the epistemological perspective, knowledge is certainty (Harris, 2009). Just as the case is with Plato, whose quest for certainty has driven his metaphysics to take it, as a...
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...Wellness Intervention for Older Adults with Chronic Illness NAME INSTITUTION Chronic illness on elderly people has become rampant and of great concern. Medical intervention makes it possible for people to live longer and to survive more severe injury and pain. (Brown, 2003). Chronic illness can lead to isolation, depression, occupational deprivation among others effects. Occupational Therapists intend to know the evidence concerning nonpharmaceutical mind-body interventions that are more likely to increased participations. The objective of this study was to evaluate mind –body interventions for the elderly adult with chronic pain. I randomly sampled one hundred and twenty patients from different hospitals within Miami. The response gave instruction in mind and body relationship, cognitive restructuring, problem-solving, communication and behavioral treatment for insomnia, nutrition and exercise, meditation, hypnosis, yoga and guided imagery. A structured review evaluated pain reduction, feasibility, and safety. I used studies in Medline and PsycINFO to retrieve the data. 40 samples out of 120 include older adults with chronic illness aged between 60 to 75 years for one year follow up. I excluded samples of chronic nonmalignant pain. I selected twenty two and eighteen samples for men and women respectively. The outcome measures varied by the study, it took into consideration of depression scale, chronic pain acceptance questionnaire health, arthritis impact measurements, health-promoting...
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...Stability - Principle 1 The principle of stability can be applied to almost all athletes participating in any sport. Stability is defined as the resistance to both linear and angular acceleration. Sports where stability plays an important role include: Wrestling stance, football three-point stance, gymnastics, running long jump, weight lifting etc. Mass Mass: The amount of matter in any given object or body. -The more mass an object or person has, the greater the resistance to change it will have (greater inertia) -This relates to Newton’s first Law of Motion -Due to the mass of any given object, there will be difficulty going from a state of rest to a state of motion and vice versa -To move objects or bodies with greater mass, there...
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...Equine Assisted Therapy By: Ashley M. Lorenc An ancient Greek sage once said, "The outside of a horse is the best thing for the inside of man." Hippocrates echoed that sentiment when he spoke of "ride rhythm" (Bliss). I have found there is an unspoken magic that horses posses when it comes to healing human beings. This experience is something that could never be taught or reached in a “talk” therapy session. The primary objective of Equine Assisted Therapy at Helping Hands Therapeutic Riding Center is rehabilitation, but it is also there to provide mental, physical, and social stimulation. The children love coming out to ride. It is amazing seeing an unresponsive child get on a horse and 45 minutes later have a totally different personality. Some of the children are more challenging to work with than others. Their attention spans can be short so keeping them focused and entertained can be difficult. One patient we had was a girl about age 12. While on the horse she would talk in song, in a soft tone. She loved being on the horse. When the therapist would tell her left and right she would start to respond and move the reigns. Every child has their own personalities and their own needs. Each child is matched with a horse depending on those needs. This takes great patience for all the participants. Safety is essential. That is why I am there. I volunteer to walk next to the horse, to control the horse, and to monitor the rider through the lesson. The therapist...
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...Wellness Spas are everywhere. We are offering a spa that will reconnect your mind, body and soul. It will be a place of refuge and a safe haven to revive your energies, redirect your thoughts and actions in the aim of being whole again. We will offer you exotic services to help you attain this measure of revitalization and peace. Please take a few moments to answer a few questions below. 1) Do you take a few minutes each day to quiet your mind and breathe deeply? a. Yes b. No 2) Are you familiar with: Very Familiar Somewhat Familiar No c. Aromatherapy and its benefits d. Hot stone massage e. Oriental Foot Massage f. Acupuncture g. Thai Yoga Massage h. Yoga exercise i. Spa Parties j. How to change your nutrition habits 3) Which of these services are you most likely to choose? k. Aromatherapy - mixture of natural oils inhaled or rubbed into the body to bring about psychological or physical wellbeing. l. Hot stone massage – heated stones are placed at strategic points on your back and the stones warm and relax the muscles. It is believed to improve circulation and calm the nervous system. m. Oriental Foot Massage – a form of reflexology bringing healing through pressure points on sole and to of feet. n. Acupuncture – ancient Chinese healing through insertion of needle in certain points of the body. o. Thai Yoga Massage – being stretched by the massage therapist to...
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...Abstract This essay discusses the mind-body question and the difficulty to explain how these two entities relate to philosophical and scientific inquiry. This discussion includes the difficulty scientists find with dealing with the mind-body question when discussing the conception of reality. The discussion will include Searle’s perception of the mind-body question and conclude with a personal perspective of the mind-body question and what it means to her. The conclusion of the essay after research is that this question is difficult to answer because of different views and perspectives. Mind-Body Questions Paper The mind-body question has been a source of examination for many years. This examination began in the seventeenth-century with the French philosopher Descartes. Many credit Descartes with beginning the mind-body problem. The mind-body question in essence deals with how the physical world interacts and relates to the mental aspects of the mind. Descartes considered that the mind existed only in the mental state with the body existing only in the physical state. He felt that the mind could not exist with the body (Schimmel, 2001). Many others have formed various opinions, including John Searle, which emphasizes consciousness when discussing the mind. This essay is a discussion of the difficulty poised by the mind-body question on philosophical and scientific inquiry. The essay will also include the perspective of Searle concerning the mind-body question and reality. It will...
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...why the mind-body problem (i.e., the problem of the interaction between the mind and the body) is a challenge (or an objection) to Descartes’ philosophy of mind. In other words, explain how we can make an argument from the mind-body problem against Descartes’ theory of the mind. Descartes’ philosophy of mind has several aspects, but not all of them are related to the mind-body problem. Please first explain the relevant parts of his philosophy of mind, and then explain the challenge from the mind-body problem. Ziyao Wang Phil105 Prof. Chong Yuan Feb.1st Descartes was the first to formulate the mind–body problem in the form in which it exists today. He identified the mind with consciousness and thoughts are distinguished from the brain as the position of hardware. There are several parts of Descartes’ philosophy of mind. To begin with, your brain is totally independent of your body, you can exist without a body. Secondly, you know your mind and thoughts most much more than anything else. Furthermore, body must have space and mind must has thoughts and no space. Take animal for example, animals do not have thoughts because they cannot think. Last but not least, the certain things cannot be doubted. The most important, Descartes is a dualist, in his view, the mind and the body are not the same thing. Minds, thoughts and consciousness are not in the space, however, body must in space. Moreover, the brain just serves as a connection between the mind and the body. Human’s...
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...Aristotle‘s concept of mind with that of Descartes. Introduction In this essay I attempt to show Aristotle’s concept of soul/mind*[1]. Then I compare and contrast it with Descartes’ concept of mind. In order to understand Aristotle’s concepts of mind, I shall consider Aristotle’s De Anima, in which Aristotle mostly concentrates on soul/mind discussion. I will examine the work of Kahn and Sorabji, who both considered Aristotle’s and Descartes’ philosophy in relation to soul and body problem. In order to compare Aristotle’s concept of mind with Descartes’, I am going to introduce Descartes’ most famous philosophical work which involves the question of mind directly, namely hisMeditations. …………………………. …………………………… ………………………………. If we look at Aristotle’s De Anima we can understand that pre-Aristotle thinkers were already concerned with corporeal and incorporeal problems. For example, for Plato soul was an ‘incorporeal’ and immortal thing, but body corporeal and mortal. The first impression we get from reading De Anima is that the mind and body problem was unsolved. Perhaps the resolved problem didn’t satisfy Aristotle. Aristotle claims that an incorporeal thing cannot exist without a corporeal thing. Aristotle’s new theory for solving soul and body problems makes controversial debate among most post-Aristotelian philosophers. Rene Descartes was one of them who rejected the Aristotelian concept of mind in which corporeal and incorporeal...
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...that mind and body are really distinct–a thesis now called “mind-body dualism.” He reaches this conclusion by arguing that the nature of the mind (that is, a thinking, non-extended thing) is completely different from that of the body (that is, an extended, non-thinking thing), and therefore it is possible for one to exist without the other. This argument gives rise to the famous problem of mind-body causal interaction still debated today: how can the mind cause some of our bodily limbs to move (for example, raising one’s hand to ask a question), and how can the body’s sense organs cause sensations in the mind when their natures are completely different? This article examines these issues as well as Descartes’ own response to this problem through his brief remarks on how the mind is united with the body to form a human being. This will show how these issues arise because of a misconception about Descartes’ theory of mind-body union, and how the correct conception of their union avoids this version of the problem. The article begins with an examination of the term “real distinction” and of Descartes’ probable motivations for maintaining his dualist thesis. Table of Contents 1. What is a Real Distinction? 2. Why a Real Distinction? 1. The Religious Motivation 2. The Scientific Motivation 3. The Real Distinction Argument 3. The First Version 4. The Second Version 4. The Mind-Body Problem 5. Descartes’ Response to the Mind-Body...
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...PHI130 10-17-2011 Abstract In the present paper, the issue of mind is discussed in the framework of mind/body problem. While in the times of Aristotle and Plato it was named differently and explained through objects materiality and soul divinity, the modern perception of the same correlation was emphasized by Descartes as body/mind problem. In the present paper, the essence of the problem is outlined in the context of one of the modern philosophies of mind, meaning physicalism. The main aims of this essay is to identify the corner stone of physicalist concept, its main supporting and opposing arguments, and distinguish which position is the strongest one and understand the reason why. Key words: physicalism, body/mind problem, knowledge, exclusion, consciousness. What is mind? In the history of human thought, there were various dilemmas which the brightest minds of their times were trying to solve and which remained enigmas until our times. The mind/body problem is one of those issues. While, in times of Aristotle and Plato, it was named differently and explained through the objects materiality and soul divinity, the modern perception of the same correlation was shaped by Descartes as body/mind problem. In the present paper, the essence of the problem is explained in the context of one of the modern philosophies of mind, meaning physicalism. The main aims of this essay is to identify the corner stone of physicalist concept, its main supporting and opposing arguments...
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...relationship between the body and the mind, creating a major conflict amongst theorists. Dualism is a theory that claims that the mind, a non-physical substance, is completely separate and distinct from the body, a physical substance. Originally coined by the famous philosopher René Descartes, dualism has since been argued against and overshadowed by numerous opposing theories. This was primarily due to the many weaknesses that dualism faced and the problems that could not be explained under this view. One of the opposing theories, functionalism, did not face the weaknesses that dualism did, and the problems they came across were not an issue for functionalists. This view, most strongly...
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...Mind-Body Connection and how it Affects Learning James Webb Coll100 American Military University Corey Tutor Mind-Body Connection and how it Affects Learning The mind–body connection examines the relationship between mind and matter, and in particular the relationship between consciousness and the brain. Many throughout history have often wondered what causes the connection between the mental portion of the mind and the physical state of the body. A variety of different topics have been proposed. Most fall under either the dualist or monist theories. Many philosophers have debated their theories on the mind-body connection to include such philosophers as Descartes and Plato. More recent researchers have moved beyond the dualist conceptions of body and mind towards a unified and interrelated concept of a bodymind together. Today scientists believe our minds and bodies work together. The body-mind connection helps us to pay attention and solve problems as well as affecting memory. Basically, the physical state of your body directly affects how well our minds will work. Some scientists are also researching how emotions affect the body-mind connection. Numerous studies have been done to show the proof that these theories are factual. The philosophy behind the mind body connection began with Plato and Aristotle. Basically both philosophers believed that the physical body contained multiple souls. Their theories differed a bit in that Plato believed that if the body died...
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