Are the Mind and Body seperate entities?

[doppelganger]

Got to disagree I'm afraid. If I ask a question about a cat and a flea and whether they are separate or the same thing I'm not asking what do I mean by the words cat and flea.

But if you and whoever you think you're "debating" with don't have some reasonably similar meaning associated with either word, you will be engaged in a pointless semantic debate. The sign is not the thing signified.

This is not a question about the definition of words it is a question about what the mind is.

Umm . . . "What the mind is" IS about the definition of "mind."

 

[logician]

As I said, there are NO EXAMPLES of someone who is clinically dead coming back to life.

Are you kidding, our dear President Bush's brain has been clinically dead for his entire term.

 

[gnostic]

I would also ask you to think about the sitaution where brain damage occurs, either through injury or through disease. In these cases the mind remains the mind of the person to whom it belongs, but it is clearly altered. If the mind were a separate entity it would remain the same regardless of brain injury.

This is the best example that the body and mind is not separate entities.

Our reasoning, personality, emotion and consciousness, like the controls of our body functions, are all tied to the brains. Affect (damage) on the brain, will alter the our mind.

I am surprise that no one had cared to comment on that.

Frubals to you.

 

[Sunstone]

So far as I can see, the mind and body are not separate entities.

 

[Mister Emu]

As I said, there are NO EXAMPLES of someone who is clinically dead coming back to life.

Post #8

 

[sandandfoam]

This is the best example that the body and mind is not separate entities.

Our reasoning, personality, emotion and consciousness, like the controls of our body functions, are all tied to the brains. Affect (damage) on the brain, will alter the our mind.

.

If a portion of the brain, say the hippocampus, is preserved in tissue culture, with the integrity of it's neural circuitry intact, and electrophysiological and pharmacological techniques are used to manipulate synaptic function is a portion of consciousness generated?
If mind = brain it should be, should it not?

 

[Willamena]

Mind and body (not equal) Mind and brain.

 

[sandandfoam]

Mind and body (not equal) Mind and brain.

Sure.( I think both are equally incorrect but I acknowledge the difference. )
The reason I used brain in my last post is that I was following the line of argument started by Da Troof that brain injury demonstrates mind and body are one.

 

[sandandfoam]

"To make biological survival possible, Mind at large has to be funnelled through the reducing valve of the brain and the nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet" - A.Huxley
It does seem true that a function of the nervous system and sense functions is eliminative rather than productive. Huxley writes that the reduced awareness which we refer to as 'this world' is 'petrified by language' - he says that language, because it encourages us to mistake our concepts for data and our words for things, confirms the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness.

 

[Heneni]

Hi Stephen! Hope you are well. Forgive me if I state the obvious.

The body often responds to what we think. If we think happy thoughts, our body responds to it.

Our mind responds to our body too. We could have a bit of chocolate and our mind would respond with 'wow'. In your case it would be when you get on a surfboard.

How about this though...a women can not induce labour by thinking herself into it. The body in that sense is seperate from the mind.

 

[Willamena]

This is a semantic question. It turns on how one construes "mind". So the obvious answer is "yes and no."

And "body".

 

[gnostic]

If the mind and soul are one, then is the person, who is in vegetated state and is brain dead (hence mindless), considered to be soul-less?

 

[BruceDLimber]

Greetings!

>Are the mind and body separate entities?

The body is definitely separate from the mind, yes!

And the Baha'i scriptures explain it this way:

Chapter 55: SOUL, SPIRIT AND MIND​

"Question.—What is the difference between the mind, spirit and soul?"
"Answer.—It has been before explained that spirit is universally divided into five categories: the vegetable spirit, the animal spirit, the human spirit, the spirit of faith, and the Holy Spirit.
"The vegetable spirit is the power of growth which is brought about in the seed through the influence of other existences.
"The animal spirit is the power of all the senses, which is realized from the composition and mingling of elements; when this composition decomposes, the power also perishes and becomes annihilated. It may be likened to this lamp: when the oil, wick and fire are combined, it is lighted; and when this combination is dissolved—that is to say, when the combined parts are separated from one another—the lamp also is extinguished.
"The human spirit which distinguishes man from the animal is the rational soul, and these two names—the human spirit and the rational soul—designate one thing. This spirit, which in the terminology of the philosophers is the rational soul, embraces all beings, and as far as human ability permits discovers the realities of things and becomes cognizant of their peculiarities and effects, and of the qualities and properties of beings. But the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and the heavenly realities. It is like a mirror which, although clear, polished 209 and brilliant, is still in need of light. Until a ray of the sun reflects upon it, it cannot discover the heavenly secrets.
"But the mind is the power of the human spirit. Spirit is the lamp; mind is the light which shines from the lamp. Spirit is the tree, and the mind is the fruit. Mind is the perfection of the spirit and is its essential quality, as the sun’s rays are the essential necessity of the sun.
"This explanation, though short, is complete; therefore, reflect upon it, and if God wills, you may become acquainted with the details."
--Some Answered Questions, pp. 208-9


Best,

Bruce

 

[ThereIsNoSpoon]

Mind equals Brain activity. The brain is part of the body. Ergo: the mind is not seperate from the body.

 

[Bunyip]

I see mind-body dualism as being essentially the last resort of departing theism. People abandon the traditional theistic worldview but wish to cling to the essential metaphysical claims of theism - that there is some sort of non-physical 'soul', some great unknowable universal consciousness etc.
As such I see mind-body dualism as a vestige of traditional beliefs.