Abstract
A fundamental discussion in lower-level undergraduate neuroscience and psychology courses is Descartes’s “radical” or “mind-body” dualism. According to Descartes, our thinking mind, the res cogitans, is separate from the body as physical matter or substance, the res extensa. Since the transmission of sensory stimuli from the body to the mind is a physical capacity shared with animals, it can be confused, misled, or uncertain (e.g., bodily senses imply that ice and water are different substances). True certainty thus arises from within the mind and its capacity to doubt physical stimuli. Since this doubting mind is a thinking thing that is distinct from bodily stimuli, truth and certainty are reached through the doubting mind as cogito ergo sum, or the certainty of itself as it thinks: hence Descartes’s famous maxim, I think, therefore I am. However, in the last century of Western philosophy, with nervous system investigation, and with recent advances in neuroscience, the potential avenues to explore student’s understanding of the epistemology and effects of Cartesian mind-body dualism has expanded. This article further explores this expansion, highlighting pedagogical practices and tools instructors can use to enhance a psychology student’s understanding of Cartesian dualistic epistemology, in order to think more critically about its implicit assumptions and effects on learning. It does so in two ways: first, by offering instructors an alternative philosophical perspective to dualistic thinking: a mind-body holism that is antithetical to the assumed binaries of dualistic epistemology. Second, it supplements this philosophical argument with a practical component: simple mind-body illusions that instructors may use to demonstrate contrary epistemologies to students. Combining these short philosophical and neuroscience arguments thereby acts as a pedagogical tool to open new conceptual spaces within which learning may occur.
Highlights
Undergraduate students typically pursue a university education with the aim of acquiring new knowledge, certainty, or truth, about the world
Recent studies have demonstrated that as students attempt to acquire knowledge about the mind and its connection to the world, they are quickly confronted with what is known as the philosophical mind-body problem, or what is commonly referred to as “substance dualism” or “Cartesian dualism” (Fahrenberg and Cheetham, 2000)
Asserting a rigid ontological and epistemological difference between the immaterial mind and the material body, psychology students that fail to critically examine this Cartesian substance dualism in greater detail place a greater emphasis upon the rote memorization or surface-learning of knowledge and facts, which Ryan (1984) has demonstrated to be less effective than processes of interpretation and comprehension associated with understanding and deep-learning
Summary
Undergraduate students typically pursue a university education with the aim of acquiring new knowledge, certainty, or truth, about the world. In order to explore this tacit dualism in the classroom, this article provides pedagogical tools that may be embraced by instructors and students alike: first, by offering an alternative philosophical grounding or epistemology for their learning and teaching, based not in the dualistic philosophy of René Descartes, but in the holistic philosophy of Martin Heidegger By illustrating this alternative epistemological perspective in practice, through simple neuroscience illusions such as the “Pinocchio” and “Rubber Hand” illusions that manipulate the mind’s body representation. An instructor can make tacit dualistic assumptions held by students prior to these arguments and exercises, more explicit, so students may examine and think more critically about them With these differing epistemologies and hands-on demonstrations, instructors expose or challenge dualistic beliefs in their classroom, and facilitate deeper learning or understanding within their students by illustrating alternative ways of conceiving how their mind and body relates to the world. Instructors will benefit their students by promoting these critical faculties and perspectives through a deeper engagement of both science and philosophy
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