Given in class: circulation, mechanical biology, animals/humans
In group: cycles & organization, natures course, machine like quality of nature, god creation/science, soul differ from body
In the middle of discourse 5, Descartes explains that god formed our physical bodies, he created our rational souls making us different from animals because we have the gift of intelligence. Furthermore because we can communicate and express ourselves, we have the upper hand. The constant themes in my selection of discourse 5 seemed to be cycles and circulation. Descartes goes into depth about the human circulatory system. From what i could perceive, blood is life according to him, it produces heat that keeps us warm...ect. The size of veins and arteries seem to be significant. (don't really understand why though)
- Mark
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Maybe the reason why the size of the veins and arteries are significant is because they are like path ways. In part of your blog, you stated that you believe he is saying that blood is life. Well, if you take what you think he is stating and apply it to the significance of the size of the veins and arteries, maybe he is using the viens and arteries to describe the choices that we make in our every days lives. He may be saying that some paths are more "significant" than others. Meaning if you make a certain decision it may be a little change in your life while another could be a life changing decision!
When you say- "In the middle of discourse 5, Descartes explains that god formed our physical bodies, he created our rational souls making us different from animals because we have the gift of intelligence." I am uncertain of what you mean. You claim that Descartes says god made our bodies, and all of the things in it. I agree so far. But then you say that its because of our gift of intelligence that we are different to animals. Do you mean that our souls are the contributor to that, or our physical content is why we are so gifted? Or maybe he is trying to intertwine these ideas together, with the thought that the resulting outcome is that humans are more intelligent- and it is the combination of the two that creates us like-so...
From what i perceived from the reading, the fact that he created our rational souls makes us superior to animals. I agree that he is trying to intertwine the idea of our souls and bodies.
You sorta said what diana said in her blog about blood being life, which would also include the inability to go back in time, just like blood can't move backwards.
i think part of what's going on here too is that D is trying to give a totally physical explanation of something that might be thought of as special and uniquely human--showing that we are part of nature, like all the other animals. it's a key step in making god's role superfluous.
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