The mind-body debate

WARNING: this is a looooonger than usual post

PCP is the second very serious thing I've done "online". The other was a course on philosophy of the mind at the University of Oxford. And somehow I'm thinking there's an intangible and subconscious link. 

PCP with Patrick Reynolds might as well be a correlate of Philosophy of the Mind with professor Rachel Payne. The course dealt with an introduction to classic and contemporary readings that covered the history of the mind-body debate from ancient Greeks to Descartes to neurophysiology. That is, from the extreme dualist views to the extreme monist views. The former are certainly more mystical and inspiring, almost poetic, while the most recent cut to chase and simply 'prove' that, as much as there's a myriad of mysteries unsolved, the mind is clearly a brain function. 

Descartes' method of introspection is a great mental experiment to ultimately knowing the self. Hence the classic conclusion "cogito ergo sum". His critics say that as far as a method for generalisation goes, introspection is to knowledge as useful as salt to a PCPeer. I don't think that's true, but then again, I'm not a critic of Descartes and have much more interest in observing my mind than the mind of others. I see no problem in assuming others have similar minds. Proof of that is we -usually- understand each other through language.

Linguists, for that matter, are also entangled with the problem of whether it is possible to think without words -or without a language-. All very interesting, no?

And even though in the end I became convinced -or rather more credulous- of the most scientific points of view, I was thinking today, reflecting on the past twenty days, that when we think of ourselves we tend to neglect thinking about our bodies. 

We think about who we are, about the self, about more mystical issues like the soul and its passions, and about qualities of our character and personality that define us. It is as if, put in the words of Sir Ken Robinson (another splendid speaker you can find at TED Talks), we thought of our bodies as a means of transportation, as a necessary vehicle to get our heads to meetings. Funny remark, right? But to judge from the average physique of our fellow humans these days, more than a joke this is a lucid synthesis of how messed up are our priorities in society today. Let me be honest: I was such a fellow human just 20 days ago and so were most of you for what I've read.

So at least in this more cultural aspect, the debate about dualism seems to me to still have validity and relevance. We are accustomed to pop phrases like "you are what you eat". Sure (though not exclusively), but it is not until now that such a sentence bares real meaning. Specially since so much cooking is involved in the PCP. 

That's why I so much like the video I posted in which Heribert Watzke concludes "coquo ergo sum", "I cook therefore I am". Aside from a clever twist of Descartes' conclusion, what Watzke does is to explain to the general public some basic facts that have been known by scientists for a while about the workings of our gut, about the surprising variety of neurone cells that regulate hormones -signals- inside the layers of our intestines. His definition of man as an animal who cooks his own food transcends beyond humour. 

(Watzke has no excuse for being that fat, also proving that understanding and doing are two separate things and that the first does not necessarily lead to the other. In fact, I often find that understanding complex things is like playing Russian roulette: it's a rush of adrenaline until you are no more (that's why I've never tried it... the Russian roulette that is).)

I want to say that PCP is indeed a mental experiment, much like Descartes' famous Second Meditation. Specially when you look at the mirror after the shower and see a different body, a transforming body, that wasn't there the day before. Suddenly you wonder, "is this real?". Is PCP a dream we are going to wake up from in 70 days to find our fat bodies still carrying our heads to board meetings and depressing brown-bag lunches with the automatas we so carelessly call "colleagues"*?

* People who invest their lives in some extraneous cause and whose terms of reference require that their energy be consumed sitting in a chair in front of a computer screen right up to the point in their lives when it's time to become old.

I certainly hope not. There was one good thing I miss from my days as a smoker, which was to get up from my chair, go out the street, light a cigarette and put my mind at ease for a few minutes before plugging myself back to the routine. I am getting a better effect with fructose than with nicotine. The morning snack is my excuse to go down the Amrit (an organic market near my office) and buy the 180g of fruit. By the way, fruit is so cheap where I live. I wonder what would happen to the price of fruit and vegetables if a significant percentage of the population decided to do the PCP.

Let me wind back. I must say I learned much from Descartes. In fact every now and then I try repeating the mental experiment (Second Meditation) and it's always a superb method to keep track of mental changes. 

But now it seems that such practice will never be enough again. Training and awareness of what I cook and what I eat are now sticked to my mind in such a way that encourages me to rather think about the famous Second Meditation as the Meditation to the Second Power. I find it weird reading my own words. I've just realised that as much as I continue to define my point of view on the mind-body debate as monist, PCP is proving that I'm actually an integrationist. Yes, the mind is a brain function. But how much are we using such beautiful and mysterious instrument to think about the rest of our bodies? Furthermore, why only use your head for thinking when you can think also with, for example, your sore calfs?

No wonder the world is increasingly populated by fat and brutal individuals. If intellectuals, or anyone who thinks for that matter, not only rubbed their chins with their index and thumb in that ridiculous and falsely elegant way before coming up with some astute remark, but also skipped a rope 1000 times before opening their mouths, I'd bet ideas would also look leaner and communication among humans would be low-fat.

OK, I'm starting to sound dogmatic and eventually my words will hunt me in the future. I certainly hope they do if I happen to start forgetting to eat my vegetables and move my body. 

Aside from the tone, please also excuse each and every possible scholarly inconsistency in my words. In the end, this is a blog entry, not an essay. And no, I'm not structuring my intellect exclusively by paying attention to TED Talks, but as you might have noticed, this is one of my favourite pastimes. 

I'm just thrilled that my body feels awake and that feeling made me think if this affirmation made sense to a monist. And the answer is yes, more than ever -which is another way of saying 'for the first time'-.

Don't you think?