Self And The Phenomenon Of Life: A Biologist Examines Life From Molecules To Humanity

Self from Within: The Introspective Self 311

“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity

13.6 Afterthought: A great paradox

We live in an intuitive world of harmony and coherence. It is only when
we start to analyze that the dichotomy of mind and body emerges, and
this plunges us into an entangled mesh of physical and mental reali-
ties. The material world is real, but its nature is forever hidden behind
a “veil.” The mental world is also real, but because we dwell in it, and
it is in us, it is always ineffable and indescribable. Mind and matter are
different but inseparable. It may be more correct to say that there is only
one real world, the intuitive world that is both mental and physical (or
neither totally mental nor totally physical). Facing this enormous para-
dox, I can only admit that the mind-body conundrum, which is the very
essence of our being, remains an enigma.^28

Notes and References

1. Excerpted from Chapter 17 of the Chinese philosophical classic Zhuangzi
   (Chuang–Tzu) 《庄子》. Original text: 庄子与惠子游于濠梁之上。庄子曰:
   鯈鱼出游从容, 是鱼之乐也。 惠子曰: 子非鱼, 安知鱼之乐？庄子曰: 子非
   我, 安知我不知鱼之乐？


2. James W. (1890) The Principles of Psychology. Henry Holt; republished by
   Dover, New York, 1950, Vol. 1, p. 185.


3. Descartes R. The Philosophical Works of Descartes. English trans. by
   Haldane ES, Ross GRT. (1967) Vol. 1, page 101, Cambridge Univ. Press,
   New York.


4. Note that Descartes used the term “cogitation” to encompass all men-
   tal functions, including thinking and emotion. As Bertrand Russell said,
   “Thinking is used by Descartes in a very wide sense. A thing that thinks, he
   says, is one that doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, imag-
   ines and feels — for feeling, as it occurs in dreams, is a form of thinking.”
   See: Russell B. (1945) A History of Western Philosophy. Simon & Schuster,
   New York. Descartes’ famous statement (cogito) represents an epistemo-
   logical approach to affirm the existence of the agent who does the mental
   activities. The approach provides a solid foundation for the assertion of self
   and mind. It is only when he imbued the mind with immortality (soul) and