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Question 1

What characteristics does Mainstream Western philosophical thought assumes as the common view of “man”?

Answer 1

• the mind and
• the body

Question 2

Who was Rene Descartes?

Answer 2

He was a French mathematician, philosopher, and scientist

Question 3

What phrase is Descartes best known for?

Answer 3

I think therefore I am

Question 4

What principle does the phrase “I think therefore I am” refer to?

Answer 4

The principle of the mind-body dualism

Question 5

What are the specific qualities associated with each half of the dualism?

Answer 5

The mind: observing and reflexive
The body: instrumental and mechanical

Question 6

What entity defines a person according to Descartes and why?

Answer 6

The mind. Its ability to think and be reflexive elevates its status to the definition of the person

Question 7

What does the reflexive mind continuously subject the “mindless” body to?

Answer 7

To analysis, measurement and discipline.

Question 8

According to Descartes, how is the mind seen compared to the body and nature?

Answer 8

As a self-contained, self-enclosed inner realm, separate from nature and the body.

Question 9

What is known as Cartesian Dualism?

Answer 9

The mind/body division

Question 10

What disciplines typically study the body?

Answer 10

Physiology, Biology, Medicine

Question 11

what disciplines typically study the mind?

Answer 11

Psychology, humanities, social sciences

Question 12

How do the social sciences specifically view the body in comparison to the mind?

Answer 12

As a tool for the mind to use, an instrument at the disposal of consciousness. The body is inert, static, lifeless without the mind

Question 13

The study of social sciences is ultimately Cartesian. Why?

Answer 13

Because it implicitly accepts and reinforces a mind/body division

Question 14

Explain the body as machine metaphor in the the mind/body dualism reading

Answer 14

It suggests that the body is similar to a system of moving parts with an outside energy/power source.

Question 15

in the mind/body dualism reading, give examples of familiar metaphor to explain how the body works

Answer 15

The spring in a clock, heat of a steam engine, combustion of fuel

Question 16

What does Samantha Holland suggest the Hollywood production of Cyborg films illustrate?

Answer 16

The assumed distinctiveness and supremacy of the human mind over the body

Question 17

What are the main points to the philosophical objections of the Mind/Body split and what to they believe instead?

Answer 17

• The machine metaphor ignores the body’s capacity to grow, regenerate and decay
  -Body is in continual process of transformation, and is a self-constituting organism
• In constant exchange with the environment

Question 18

Explain the flame metaphor and its connection to the body

Answer 18

• Flame is in constant exchange with its environment, it is always changing and regenerating.
  -Like the body that is at each moment reconstituted of different layers of materials different from previous ones
• Body, like the flame, is in a process of becoming, interacting, exchanging and producing. Like the flame, it is fragmented and consuming

Question 19

How does the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche challenge/reverse the idea that the mind is in control of the body?

Answer 19

-He theorizes that the body creates the mind. The mind is a product of the body. It is because of the body that the mind exists
-The mind is a direct product or effect of reactive forces within the body

Question 20

What does Friedrich Nietzsche believe Western Philosophers have confused mind with?

Answer 20

With the effects of the body, attributing cause to “mind’ when in reality, conciousness is merely the outgrowth or product of the body and its energies.

Question 21

What are the 3 areas of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophical insights in objecting the mind/body dualism?

Answer 21

• The examination of perception, the examination of touch and the bodily confusion experienced through phantom limbs

Question 22

Explain Merleau-Ponty’s examination of perception.

Answer 22

• external space is understood only through its relationship to the body – not grasped directly or through the senses
• the body is not a collection of adjacent organs, but a synergic system
• body and mind are united, the body is not a passive unconscious object

Question 23

Explain Merleau-Ponty’s examination of touch

Answer 23

• gives the example of the double sensation when two hands are clasped
• because the body feels, senses and is aware of itself, you cannot conclude that it is lifeless

Question 24

What is a phantom limb?

Answer 24

When an amputee feels pain where a limb once was

Question 25

Explain Merleau-Ponty’s conclusion on phantom limbs and their relationship to how the body should be viewed

Answer 25

• The idea of phantom limbs perfectly describes how the body gives sense/meaning to its own component parts and to its relationship to the world

Question 26

Explain how and why it can be concluded that the mind and body are necessarily connected using the accounts of Key Toombs.

Answer 26

• describes how the senses are elastic
• as her physical condition transformed, so did her senses of space, distance and objects
• her wheelchair became an extension to her being
• her body is actively interacting with its environment

Question 27

What do sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists suggest generally about human behaviour and emotions and what do they conclude about the differences between human beings?

Answer 27

• human behaviour, thought and emotion is hormonally controlled or determined by our neurological structures, which are themselves genetically based and a result of evolution
• Biological foundations generate the essential differences between human beings (man and women, iqs, criminality and violence)

Question 28

What are the main critiques to sociobiologists claims about human behaviours and the difference between human beings?

Answer 28

• sociobiologists theorists are ignoring the pivotal role socialization and culture play in the development of human behaviour
• critiques for grounding their analysis of human behaviour on genes, natural selections and evolution

Question 29

Explain the Chinese idea of yin/yang and its relationship to the body and mind dualism

Answer 29

• the Chinese ying/yang emphasizes a holistic relationship of the parts of the whole over the hierarchy of mind over body
• harmony and interdependence is highlighted with the focus on inclusive interactions
• concept of interrelationship and balance

Question 30

Explain the perception of mind and body for the Cuna Indians of panama

Answer 30

• an individuals temperament is governed by a specific body part
• example: a thief is governed by the hand, a romantic by the heart, an intellectual by the head
• eight selves, each associated with a different body part

Question 31

What is the Navajo Americans perception of the body?

Answer 31

• it is sacred
• transplants, blood donations = a crime towards the creator, nature.
• the body is lent to the humans, a gift.
• body and mind and spirit are unified.

Question 32

What does the term “dualism” mean, and what two elements make up “Cartesian Dualism?”

Answer 32

-The division of something conceptually.
- The mind and body – mental and physical

Question 33

What is the “serotonin thesis” and how has it been criticized?

Answer 33

• Criticized for prescribing a drug to solve a problem. They explain it scientifically as being solely based on the hormones and genetics and body function and nature instead of looking at the external factors that can influence such behaviors. It’s a limited science.

Question 34

give examples of bodily metaphors

Answer 34

The head of a corporation, the butt of a joke