Rene Descartes believed that the mind and body existed on two wholly separate planes. It is my belief that the mind and body do not exist on two separate levels, but rather they are on in the same plane of thought. The mind is better equipped for making conclusions rather than gathering information, which is the strength of the body. Each entity has its strong and weak points. In order to function properly and effectively, the mind and body must work together to ensure a fully functioning individual.
The main crux of Dualism is that thought exists on two distinct levels. The brain can only understand what it gathers through the senses while the mind can perceive the vast expanses of the universe. Rather than thinking that this gap exists such that the mind cannot perceive things on the physical plane, and the brain cannot perceive things on the perception plane, try to imagine that the mind and body are simply on extreme ends of the same plain. The mind can interact with the body through imagination and through the gathering of senses. My reason for having a problem with Dualism stems from the ways the mind interacts with the body (brain). If the mind is imagining, even the most far- fetched day dream is rooted, in some way or another, in something a person has experienced with the senses. Only by experiencing as many things as possible, can a persons imagination become more vivid, because the mind has more bits of information to work with. Imagination is almost like a video game, and the brain is the tool to run the game. Without the tool, the game is useless. In order for the mind to work with the brain, the two must be compatible, much like a video game unit.
When something is sensed or imagined, tiny bits of information about the object are examined are transferred to the mind. The job of the mind is to take what it has been given and come to a conclusion as to what an object is. The body is better suited for gathering the information the mind uses to perceive what the body sees. The mind is better suited at drawing these very conclusions. There is no doubt it would be harder for the mind to draw conclusions without the help of the senses.
The question arises that if it is up to the mind to make the decisions on the nature of an object, how can the mind and body be on the same level. Wouldn’t the mind have a far superior job, performing a task the body could not do, in which case it would be plausible to assume that the mind and body exist on separate levels? The mind had no body with which to gather bits of information, it couldn’t possibly perceive anything other than itself. If the mind has to rely on the senses of the body in order to perceive any object in the universe, than it cannot be on a different level of thought. To illustrate this point, assume that the mind can in fact “perceive” without the aid of a body. Life after death is a situation where the body, obviously, would not be connected to the mind. Presumably the mind would be able to perceive this life, and, at the will of the body, be able to allow the mind to know what the great beyond is like. Because the mind cannot conceive such a place, it too like the brain has its limits. Because both the mind and the body fall short being able to perceive everything each experience, they must be on the same level.
Not only do the mind and body exist on one plain and interact together, they must begin this interaction at birth. The brain of a young child acts as a sponge, gathering every little bit of information that comes its way. The child interacts with people, touches, tastes and attempts using all of his senses. If the brain is not able to start out young and get bits of information about the world around it, the mind cannot function at full capacity as the child gets older. In order to demonstrate this point, consider the case of a California girl locked in her closet from the time she was born until she was discovered by health care workers 7 years later. The child was never allowed to use her senses, and as a result her brain never practiced gathering information to send to the mind. If the mind truly was separate from the body, surely it would have been able to bypass the earlier setback of not having a chance to experience the world. In the mind’s incalculable wisdom, shouldn’t it have been able to find a way to unite itself with the child to produce a normal, healthy girl. She obviously never reasoned that she herself exists and that in order to communicate with people she had to learn to speak. As it turned out, the girl never had a fully functioning life. It is clear that the mind and body are on the same level, when one is hindered, the other cannot function at an optimal level.
The case for Dualism lacks some major sticking points. The casual interaction between mind and body is no mystery. The mind works so well with the body (brain) because they function at the same clip. Neither the mind nor the body could live wholly separate from the other. A reason for this smooth transition between sense perception and actualization is that the mind is really an extension of the brain which allows for a more complete understanding of the world around it.