A sharing by Alan Ho Chok Chan
It’s not about chocolates, it’s also not about John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men.
Rather, I would like to delve into the topic of Mind and Matter.
You would be familiar with the old saw : ” What is mind ? No matter. What is matter ? Never mind.”
Since time immemorial, Man, thinking man, has puzzled over the age-old question of mind, consciousness, spirit , and soul : and its relationship to the human body, or soma.
Everyone knows what I am speaking about, but no one can honestly put a finger unto defining what they are.
All four are somehow related in a nebulous manner, yet not strictly interchangeable.
We are born with them. Without them, we are unfit to be called a man : Descartes’ Man ( Cogito, ergo sum : I think, therefore I am )
We would only be a naked ape.
What is mind-consciousness-spirit-soul composed of ? Where is it located ? In our hearts? Our brains ? Or somewhere above and beyond our being : like, a halo atop portraits of angels ?
How is mind related to the body ( or matter )?
Does the mind control the body? Or vice-versa ?
When we lose consciousness, is the spirit or soul temporarily ‘ on leave ‘ ?
When we die, do our consciousness-spirit-soul also die with us ? Or do they remain indestructible, and transmigrate to another realm of existence, into another unborn being, or what ?
Greek Philosophers’ viewpoints
In the Western world, the Greek philosophers were the first to think about it ( some 4-5 centuries BC ), Plato : Man is composed of a body, which belongs to the material, sensory world and is subject to decay and destruction, but he also has an immortal soul, which cannot be perceived, but belongs to the world of Ideas, and which is eternal and indestructible.
Aristotle, a pupil of Plato, a natural organiser and a proponent of Logic, unified Plato’s Dualistic view of life : the World of Form ( or Sensory world ) and the World of Ideas ( or soul, consciousness ) into a co-existent, interconnected whole. Aristotle believes nothing can exist in consciousness unless we first receive and experience inputs from the sensory world. Thus sensory input–> impressions–>reasoning and thought processes–> Perception, memory and consciousness.
Other Philosophers’ Views
Fast forward to the Enlightenment and the Romantic era and we encounter other philosophers thinking, debating about the same topics. Some think Man cannot have knowledge of the world except through his Mind and Reasoning ( the Rationalists ), others refute this by saying all knowledge can only be acquired through sensory experience ( the Empiricists ), until Immanuel Kant, the last of the great 18th century German philosophers who came along and said both are partly right, and partly wrong.
Kant believes knowledge of the world comes from sensory experience, but the mind, through reasoning, influences our perception of the world.
Hence a unified view ( monism ) replaced the dualistic outlook.
Kant’s Contributions
Kant has also other important contributions :
The material body in the sensory world follows the laws of nature ( Natural law ) and the cycles of birth and death. The mind or the spirit, Kant believes also follows a set of Moral law, and all beings have this inbuilt in them, the ability to distinguish right from wrong. This deals with the realm of conscience and consciousness.
Kant also believes that Deep, Major questions in life, like the presence or absence of God, whether the Universe has a beginning or an end , whether there is a soul , and whether it is immutable, whether matter is composed of minute, indestructible parts, and nothing in the universe is ever created or destroyed…He believes such questions can never be resolved by either rationalism ( reasoning ) or empiricism ( sensory experience ) however we look at it. But being human, we will still need to ask these unanswerable questions.
Kant believes what we cannot experience or reason , can only be answered by Faith.
Reference readings :
Jostein Gaarder : Sophie’s World
Rita Carter : Mapping the Brain
Dr Alan Ho Chok Chan is a Paediatrician in private Family Practice. He also spends time golfing, swimming, playing tennis, wine tasting, playing guitar and singing. He is also a bibliophile and a voracious reader.
