Blog #3

Several aspects of Descartes' argument struck me as odd as I read it, such as the idea that the individual has the ability to access all knowledge essentially without outside stimulus. However, the idea of the Cartesian split has bothered me most as I've thought about this reading. I feel like the concrete split between mind and body was justified by Descartes largely in order to elevate his academic pursuit of reason above any more wholistic approach to the world. By demanding that the mind is wholly separate from and higher than the body, he made it easier to use his own logic to disprove other ideas about the relationship between the mind and the body. by discounting the body as unrelated to the mind, he built a logic that made his argument true if that logic was believed. 

I have seen how the idea of the Cartesian split influences social attitudes towards the mind and body today. In western society at least, mental, academic pursuits are considered to be higher and more worthwhile than physical ones. Just look for example at the way college professors and professional athletes are treated. People working in academic fields are revered in this culture, though athletic pursuits are at times paid better (if the athletes are men). The split between "mind" and "body" pursuits is complex, but the key is that they are ket separate. It is not culturally expected for a professional basketball player to be able to write and publish academic papers, nor are neuroscientists expected to run a mile in five minutes. This evidence supports Descartes Cartesian split, but I believe modern athletics prove that this split simply doesn't work in practice. 

For years, athletics abided by Cartesian ideas, focusing on the physical skills of athletes above all else. but in recent years, especially since the 1980s, the importance of mental skills in sports has become more and more apparent. Athletic programs today have entire separate practices just for working on mental skills to help athletes better cope with the pressure of competition, work better in a team, visualize ideal outcomes and remain positive through defeats. Strategies like visualization and meditation have been proven to improve performance in many different athletic arenas. At this point in time, the idea of keeping physical performance entirely separate from mental performance seems unwise and outdated. The clear improvements in the performance of athletes as a result of more institutional focus on mental training proves for me that the Cartesian split cannot be true. The mind influences the body and vice versa, and this has been proven many times over since Descartes' time. 

Source: https://www.google.com/url?url=http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url%3Furl%3Dhttps://is.muni.cz/el/1421/podzim2017/PSX_113/um/Vealey_Mental_Skills_Training_in_Sport.pdf%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26scisig%3DAAGBfm25hgUsjU3YaPeG6FrZKjBGN8e1ag%26nossl%3D1%26oi%3Dscholarr&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFgNb02q3ZAhUJKawKHXMECdcQgAMIKCgAMAA&usg=AOvVaw3GmzPgDh4K6awxqIIQVCF1