19 February 2013
What is a mind and its relationship to the body?
This is the question that underlies the third unit in my Philosophy of Human Nature course. Today we had to submit our initial thoughts on this question. I didn’t have a hard time articulating my initial thought to this question, unlike what was the case with the second overarching question.
Posted on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 at 9:40 am and filed under CSBSJU Coursework, Philosophical Inquiry.
I wonder if part of the function if my mind is to disrupt the function of my body? I actually believe that my brain would likely be very capable of keeping my body alive without “higher” consciousness playing a role. In fact, most of the world seems perfectly capable of survival without brains at all, from grass to trees, from plankton to virus. When I think, I interfere with this survival. I empathize with others, I fall in love, I eat things I shouldn’t, I stay awake writing a program or a paper. Most of what I do when I “think” about it is counter to the healthy survival of my body and myself. Maybe this is by design? Maybe thinking is a gift of disruption, an invitation to something beyond survival?