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mcurrie's picture

Matter and Mind

 Looking through my notes and how society is leaning more toward Dickinson view of the brain as matter instead of Descartes view of the brain and the mind. Society has made many discoveries of using drugs and chemicals to treat certain neurobiological symptoms. Seeing that instead of treating a person's spirit it is better to treat their physical body. I was thinking about other inventions that have been created over time making us more dependable on matter instead of the spirit or soul. But how did we come up with these inventions? Maybe it's just for the money or maybe it;s the passion the excitement, etc. What if the push behind making new discoveries is our mind, the soul, the spirit trying to find new understands instead of matter making us pursue the new realms we have yet to explore. Personally I like to agree with both Descarte and Dickinson in that yes we have a brain, neurons, all of the matter that makes our body function and all of the chemicals that interact with other matter that we can manipulate. But I also feel that we do have a soul or mind that also contributes to how the body works. I just can't seem to grasp that everything is just matter and that all that we think and create is due to chemicals coming together and saying You know what you should try to make, something that flies, or you know that bouncy ball could go in a hoop and you can make a game, yes and wonderful game that is fun and new. I just think that there has to be something else behind our thoughts, something else that is behind our thoughts and pursuits. It is the mind and spirit that makes us question and explore, brings out our passions. I just feel that if you say everything is just matter it makes everything seem one dimensional whereas if you then add the mind there is much more excitement and much more things to explore. 

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