Philosophy of Mind: Dualism of Mind and Body

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Mind-Body Dualism

Introduction

Mind-body dualism is a position or concept of the philosophy of the mind. The concept states that in a fundamentally important way, the mind exists as a complete entity distinct from the brain. Mind dualism concepts claim that the mind does not exist as a physical form or thing. Plato, early dualists, asserts that the soul exists as a separate form of the body. However, the soul inhabits the body in the period of mortal life. In immortality, the soul, rejoin the form of death. Descartes was a dualist; he believed that the mind and the body were two distinct forms. It implies that he believed that the mind could exist without the body. However, how can this be possible in a realist and behaviorist perception? Behaviorist holds on to the perception, mind, and the body exist dependently on each other. The behaviorist related the mind to how people act, respond, and behave.
The mind dualist believes that it is possible to have a mind without a body, at least in principle. Descartes knew that human mind could be interpreted using human behavior. However, he in his case their existed two fundamental possibilities which would culminate into the human belief of other minds was a mistake. The dualist provides a clear distinction between the mind and the body, the fact that the mind thinks and occupies space qualifies the mind dualism. It is clear that dualism primarily identifies mind as an entirely different form of the body. The other thoughts are observed as Radom actions that could have been triggered by anything. The behaviorist differs based on the use of common sense to .interpret human actions and understanding.
The Movie “Blade Runner.”
The movie “Blade Runner” is about life in the future. The movie interprets the contemporary society of what it is to become in future (Charalampous 23). The movie puts its audience to imagine life in the year 2020, how the future of the world would be defined. The future is characterized by huge skyscrapers looking like Merchandise Mart. The move displays worldwide company brands being displayed on enormous billboards a way of advisement. The movie is set up in the year 1982. However, it represents the life in 2020, the form that life shall have taken. Technology is heavily the subject in the movie as the advancement in technology stands out to be the major difference between the year 1982 and the year 2020.
The move is based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” the book examines the relationship between the thinking machines and humans based on the concept of memory. The big question that arises in the movie is that do Android memories look less valid in case they are supplied with memories of humans on their experiences. It becomes a problem in a situation where the Android is unaware that the memories they have are not their memories, but the memory of other people (“Blade Runner Movie Review & Film Summary (1982) | Roger Ebert”). The movie is based on a dualist point of view where an android can have memory other regarding mind without actually having the right body. However, the movie allows too much technology to overshadow its intended purpose of imagining of a world where Android could be having a memory of their own.
Analysis of the Movie

Concepts of mind-body dualism have heavily been cited in this movie. The concept of giving androids a memory of other people tends to suggest that the mind occupies the body and can do without the body. In this concept, it can be seen that two points of reason arise. Memory is portable, hence can be transferred from one person to another. It can also make the mind portable in that just as Descartes’ implies; mind occupies space. The mind concept can be analyzed in different concepts. The Mentalist refers to machines as thinkers, while the behaviorists refer to mind as part of behavior. Both concepts originate from the in-depth application of common sense to judge a particular situation.
However, both the mentalist and behavioral concept are disputable based on profound philosophical thinking. In the case of behaviorist, just because a human being’s action can be used to interpret their thought does not mean that the actions of a robot can be used to explain its thought. A robot has no thoughts of its own cannot make decisions on its own as humans. Mentalist would also find it difficult to elaborate why humans were perceived to have minds while the androids were perceived not to have minds.
Understanding the concept of body-mind dualism is like being lost in a large city because it provides many philosophical perplexities, which are quite difficult to understand. In the movie, tests are done on androids by providing them with a memory of humans. The memory assumes the body of the android by highlighting the past events that occurred on the androids life. Although the android Rachael is unaware of the fact that those are not her memories, she treats the memories as if they were her own (Appiah 7). The conversation between Deckard and Tyrell illustrate that they are both uncertain of what would happen in the event Rachael becomes aware of the fact that those are not her memory because she is an android.

Giving the Human-android memory does not change the fact that Rachael is still an Android that depends on humans. Both Deckard and Tyrell do not treat Rachel as a fellow human even though she has human memories. The inability of the Android to identify that what she has is not her memory depicts that the androids are unable to think. The transfer of the memory does not relate to any of her present experiences. Hence they cannot make a direct resolution on the understanding that the memory is not her own.
Conclusion

Mind-body dualism holds because in the above analysis it has been identified that the mind occupies space. Although the space held by the mind cannot be quantified in the head. It occupies space. Mind exists on its own without the body; the memory of a human being cannot be transferred there exist another mind. The androids have no mind by which memory could be transferred. Technological advancement has seen the development of sensory neurons that can detect human voice vibrations and act upon them based on human written algorithm. The androids follow specific instructions coded in machine language. The androids do not have a mind of their own since of their actions are predictable based on situations.
Works Cited

Appiah, Anthony. Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy. Oxford UP, 2003.

“Blade Runner Movie Review & Film Summary (1982) | Roger Ebert.” Movie Reviews and Ratings by Film Critic Roger Ebert | Roger Ebert, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blade-runner-1982-1.

Charalampous, Charis. Rethinking the Mind-Body Relationship in Early Modern Literature, Philosophy and Medicine: The Renaissance of the Body. 2016.