One can say (as I have explained it to students) that freedom of mind can only be possible if the mind is metaphysically independent of the body, thus ensuring that it's undetermined by physical laws. But I'm starting to think it's more profound than that. The cogito argument urges that the proposition I am I exist is necessarily true when it is spoken/thought. It's not that the proposition is true, but that it is necessarily true, implying that the freedom of the mind is not just a causal freedom (the opposite of being determined), but a kind of modal freedom. Perhaps: the mind has a different modal status than the body.
Hmm. I'm not sure how to spell this out either.
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The cogito argument carries many truths. It can provide a sense of reality; by being aware of your free, unrestricted thoughts, you know that there is no way you could be being tricked (like the Truman Show)as far as your personal thoughts go anyway. Another thing the cogito argument betruths is how our free minded thoughts seperate us from instinctual animals. Beasts perform actions based on biologically imprinted instincts, while humans can use their mind and do an infinite number of things because their minds are unrestricted and free to do so.
I have a question about the freedom of one's mental states to begin with, it would seem to me that in order to be free one would have to know the causal result of every action that one could seemingly take. So it is a sort of self deception in my mind believing that we have this freedom of choice. Is it really freedom of choice if you don't know all the choices you could possibly make?
Well psychic determinism says there is a cause for every effect. Thus, for every stimulus there is a response and through experimentation the stimulus could be determined. Hence, freewill is nonexistent. There is always stimuli affecting our behavior everyday. So do we really choose what we want to do or is it just the presented stimuli that causes our responses? It very interesting to think about freewill in this way. Like Viggy said...Are your choices up to you?
Here... let me through some gears into this little engine that is this post.
So, we say that in order to have a free mind that 'seems' to be independent of the body, it must be metaphysically separate from the body. I just have to ask almost the opposite. How can your mind be truly free while even attempting to separate it from the human condition. At that point why don't we just pose our questions to a computer? Do we really want to become "free" from what we are? Don't most questions require some sense of mind that is connected with the world? How can questions that are posed by people who are in touch with their senses and are affected by the world around them, be answered by someone who isn't?
i believe that freedom of the mind comes with understanding of the world and is habits, but i also happen to believe that this freedom can never be achieved by anyone. our minds are slaves put to work by our bodies necessities.
I believe that Freedom of mind will never be achieved by anyone because, we as humand beings are built by our evironments. Every action we take will lead to some sort of consequences like lindsay said " cause and effect theory" We don't do what ever we wanted because we know we can't do what ever we wanted. Like walter said, "our minds are slaves to put into work of our body's necessities"
Descartes says the soul is separate from the body, and he explains that it must be because if it were part of the body it would be a slave to its limbs and such. I think he also says the mind is a intermediary between the soul and body, so it can't be free. I think the soul is what he believes to be free.
our environments have an effect on our minds. However, our minds can also influence our surroundings. To have freedom of mind is to know the affects of our mind's behavior. I do not believe that all of our behaviors are just responses to stimuli, I think our minds do have a choice in that aspect. This is an important distinction between humans and animals; humans have the minds, which can sometimes result in unexpected behaviors.
I agree that our mind and body must work together in order to be of unison. Without a mind the body is clueless, without a body obviously we are motionless and the mind is pointless. I am I exist proves to be true. Your mind is screaming with ideas and thoughts, and yet your body carries out the desired effects of the thoughts from the mind. They must work together in order to be of success let alone to be.
I feel that the mind is free to think of whatever it wants to think about. But i also feel that the world surrounding us is of influence to it. Like Gabrielle said, our minds and bodies go hand in hand. They work together to help us through everyday.
I dont believe that we actually choose what we are going to do. if everyone did what they wanted to do without thinking things through life would be more chaotic than it already is. for example some people with religious beliefs have their religion to stop them from doing what they really want to do. they may want to do something but there religion condems it so they wont do it.
I agree with Gabrielle and Diana, mind and body are unison. We might think of millions of thoughts in one hour or day, who knows. The fact is our bodies are the physical aspect of our minds. If something physical were to occur, for example breaking your leg from falling off a ladder. Your mind will constantly keep your body in check because the body influences the mind too. If you went back up another ladder, your mind would be really cautious to your body not to slip or fall.
i dont believe that the mind is free physically as stated in the blog. i believe its free in the sense that we chose what to do in reference to right or wrong, we have many ideas and thoughts that flow through our mind. i do believe that our mind does what is best for the body and is influenced by the environment in which we are in. our mind and body work as one. like gabrielle said we cant have one without the other.
I believe freedom of the mind cannot be achieved. Your emotions, your intellect, likes and dislikes, and opinions shape your actions and what you are going to do next in life. These are all triggered by our environment. Also, your mind pretty much cannot become independent from your body. Your mind's thoughts and commands control your body's actions, if it became independent, your body would be in a vegetable like state. Therefore you cannot free your mind completely.
Is there any such thing as freedom of the mind? I know that I’ve blogged about this and some of my group members have also and it’s a question we’ve all sort of agreed upon but then again it’s something we’ve disagreed upon as well. To say that the mind is only free once it becomes physically independent from the body does not make sense to me. I don’t think that either the body nor the mind can exist without the other, they’re dependent on each other. The body cannot function without the help of the mind and the mind would not be working if the body shut itself down. In our minds we do have freedom of thought. Our minds are free to wonder without anyone really caring. Then again, I have to wonder can we really be free inside our own heads? We constantly have the judgments of other people following us in whatever we do but in our heads, we have the even more critical judgments made by ourselves. The mind is extremely complex and I don’t think anyone will truly be able to uncover all the mysteries it has to offer. Our minds play tricks on us, therefore we play tricks on ourselves. Then could it be said that it's almost like our mind has a mind of its own? Or do we just not know how to use our knowledge and mind properly?
I remember you speaking about this in class.. I think the mind can be free from the body. Your thoughts doesnt always has to use any physical movemnt. Like ppl that are paralized, body has nothing to do with there thoughts and opinions. Also, when you sleep your body is at rest and your mind. But when your body is at rest the basic functions of the body is still working, but when you mind is at rest, you are still in control of it.
Im not sure if we have freedom of the mind. When we choose to do things it also affects our bodies. Yea our minds may think freely but it ends up affecting our bodies.
I am not sure exaclty what you are trying to say, but i think you are saying that the mind and body are distinct because the mind can only be free if it is seperate from the body. So i think there for i am means the mind can think on its own without the help of the body and our bodies could not be real but our minds exist in some form somewhere
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