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Full Idea
In parallelism, the idea that we have a body is like an astronaut hearing shouting on the moon, and reasoning that as this is impossible he must be simultaneously imagining shouting AND there is real shouting taking place!
Gist of Idea
If parallelism is true, how does the mind know about the body?
Source
Jason Crease (works [2001]), quoted by PG - Db (ideas)
A Reaction
This seems to capture the absurdity of Leibniz's proposal. I experience what my brain is doing, but not because my brain is doing it. I would never know if God had made a slight error in setting His two 'clocks'; their accuracy is just a pious hope.
21860 | Ideas and things have identical connections and order [Spinoza] |
5038 | Assume that mind and body follow their own laws, but God has harmonised them [Leibniz] |
2596 | Maybe mind and body are parallel, like two good clocks [Leibniz] |
5046 | The soul does know bodies, although they do not influence one another [Leibniz] |
19350 | We should say that body is mechanism and soul is immaterial, asserting their independence [Leibniz] |
19421 | Souls act as if there were no bodies, and bodies act as if there were no souls [Leibniz] |
19351 | Perfections of soul subordinate the body, but imperfections of soul submit to the body [Leibniz] |
3449 | If parallelism is true, how does the mind know about the body? [Crease] |