Planck E PressCenter Articles
Descartes and the Pineal Gland
Date published: 2023-06-05
Date modified: 2023-06-05
Reading time: 00:01:03
“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only
what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.”
Salvador Dali
In his philosophy, René Descartes associates two antinomic entities: matter, as the expression of the concreteness of reality, and consciousness, as something immaterial.
Descartes' dualism is an endless pit of problems. For example, how would an immaterial consciousness relate to the material world, since he considers matter and consciousness to be antagonistic and self-existent entities?
Since he thought and therefore existed, the interface would occur at a very specific point in the brain, which he called the pineal gland. Through it, the mind would respond to the moods and passions of the flesh. And it was in this gland where the ability of homo to elevate himself resided.
The primal impulses, such as hatred or desire, would reside in this tiny part and -for the philosopher- be completely separate from the body, which he considered a perfect machine and completely subject to the laws of physics. Classical, of course.
Although consciousness is definitely not located at the address proposed by René, the mind-body duality, conscious-matter, or the search for the relationship between what we are (consciousness) and what we have (body), remains.
And if we're going to judge Descartes as ridiculous for proposing something like that, we're going to have to put a lot of extremely intelligent people in that boat, because everything always reflects the zeitgeist or spirit of the times.
Let us follow the Socratic example, improved by the poetry of Ezra Pound: I know that I know nothing. I have come too late to absolute ignorance.
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