How Are the Mind and the Brain Related?

The perfect starting point is Descartes’ irrefutable cogito; I think therefore I am. I know I have a mind –but I am not sure that I have a body; or sure of the physical world at all, actually.

But what of this body? Does the physical plane exist?

Well, my mind exists, but do other minds exist? I seem to come into contact with other beings with minds constantly, but do they exist like mine? Either a) these minds are independent minds, b) they are figments of my mind, or c) they are figments of another mind (God?). But a) and c) have the same relevant implication, because both assert that I am not alone and that other minds exist. And it seems to me that my own mind cannot be the source of other minds because these other minds frequently act in ways I cannot predict or comprehend. Therefore other minds exist independently of my own and of each other. These minds are distinct from each other. This means they cannot overlap, for then they would not be distinct.

Now, we can say that the apparent external world must either be a) physical, b) mental with my own mind as the source, or c) mental with another mind as the source (God?). Yet b) and c) cannot be the case, because if a mind was the source of the world, other minds could not exist within it, as minds can not overlap and remain independent, separate minds. Yet minds do exist within the world (I know mine and believe in others): therefore the logical conclusion is that both a mind-independent physical plane and my physical body exist.

So what of the relation between mind and body? Mind is what makes us human; our mind is us. The purpose of the physical plane is to allow minds to meet and interact, which they could not do in a purely mental reality. Our bodies are anchors in this physical plateau for minds, and allow us to operate within it. Whether the mind withers away at our body’s death or continues to exist, no longer with the ability to enter the physical plane, is unknown. I would say, however, that as interaction between minds is the purpose of physical reality, the mind might as well die with the body if it cannot interact with anything.

As always, I look forward to your comments