Life, a carnival for soulless bodies

Drug dealers, rapists, child abusers, fraudsters and others of their ilk appear to be soulless creatures who are bent on satisfying their material needs. They want beautiful women, drive luxurious vehicles, eat sumptuous meals and listen to lilting music. For them life is a carnival. They are not worried about abstractions such as morals, conscience or spirituality. Their plight gives rise to the debatable point whether the body functions separately from the soul.

The mind and body relationship is as old as the hills. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) said that the body and mind of humans were not two different things but one unit. He claimed that the mind was the “form” of the human body. Therefore, the mind was responsible for all the bodily functions. As such, when a person dies, his mind too disappears.

The secret conversation is a direct encounter between God and the soul, abstracted from all material constraints. - Avicenna (980-1037)

The nature of philosophy is such that no theory remains true for ever. Although Aristotle was a colossus of ancient Greek philosophy, later philosophers were not ready to accept his theory. The dissenting voice did not come from Greece but from a philosopher who belonged to the Arabic tradition. He was Avicenna (980-1037 CE) born in a village near Bukhara, now in Uzbekistan. Avicenna wrote mainly in Arabic but he was a native Persian speaker.

Child prodigy

Avicenna was a child prodigy who mastered logic, philosophy and medicine to the surprise of his teachers. When he became a brilliant physician, he was still a teenager. He served various princes as a physician and political adviser. Beginning his writing career at 21, Avicenna wrote on diverse subjects such as metaphysics, animal physiology, mechanics of solids and Arabic syntax. He died when his medications were maliciously altered while on campaign with his patron Ala al-Dawla.

Avicenna is undoubtedly one of the great thinkers of the world. He became prominent more as a philosopher than an Islamic theologian. Having mastered the Greek philosophy he followed the path of reasoning and proof. His approach to philosophy came to be known as Arabic Aristotelianism. He also wrote an encyclopaedia of Aristotelian philosophy. However, he deviated from Aristotle in his explanation of the relationship between mind (self or soul) and body.

While Aristotle claimed that the body and mind are one unit, Avicenna said they are two different entities.Thus he became a “dualist” in the history of philosophy. To prove his point Avicenna devised an experiment known as the “Flying Man.” Suppose a man is blindfolded and allowed to float in the air, he will not be able to touch anything. Although he is without any sensations, he will be aware that he exists. This shows that his self is separate from his body.

Immortal

Avicenna also argued that mind is not something material. Although we can see and feel some of our limbs such as the arm or leg, mind can only be perceived because it has no physical form. The mind is not a sense organ like the eye or ear. He extended his argument to say that the mind does not die along with the body. In other words, it is immortal.

Avicenna’s theory was contrary to orthodox Islamic view that when a person dies the body and mind are resurrected and preserved after life. As a result, the great Islamic theologian al-Ghazali criticised Avicenna bitterly calling him a heretic.

Although Islamic theologians rejected Avicenna’s dualism theory, Christian theologians favoured it. Two centuries later, Thomas Aquinas accepted Aristotle’s theory that mind and body are tied together. However, in 1640 Descartes began to promote Avicenna’s dualism. Descartes said that the self or soul is completely different from the body. Therefore, he said the soul is immortal.

Dualism

Much water has flowed under the bridge since Avicenna and Descartes promoted dualism. Modern philosophers do not seem to favour dualism. They say that Avicenna and Descartes did not have the proper scientific tools to produce authentic evidence for their dualism theory. Modern psychology too has made vast strides in understanding the thinking processes of the brain. Today we know that thinking goes on in different areas of the brain.

Gilbert Ryle, the 20th century British philosopher, called the dualists’ self as “a ghost in the machine.” He proved that humans can perceive and function without resorting to the self. However, there are philosophers who still favour dualism. While accepting that thinking is the result of the brain, they say that there is a distinction between the physical brain and the process of thinking. In the final analysis, we still hear Avicenna’s words echoing in the air: “The soul is distinct from the body.”