Gottfried Leibniz-Consciousness and Unconsciousness Research Paper

Gottfried Leibniz-Consciousness and Unconsciousness - Research Paper Example On the other hand, finite minds have limited pleats and folds, which remain confined to limited thinking and mental abilities, and reality serves as the set of all finite minds (Hill, 5). Charlie Dunbar Broad (1975) has also evaluated and analysed the philosophical contributions made by Leibniz, who had presented theory of mind contradictory to Descartes and his school of thought. Instead of submitting to Descartes’ notion of taking body and mind as two separate and interdependent entities, Leibniz views them two parts of one and the same entity (Broad, 89). French philosopher Rene Descartes, in his works, had declared mind and body two entirely different entities, which casually enter into one another for the performance of both the two (Ariew, 26). He states mind as res cogitans or a thinking object, the function of which is mere looking into the things and matters and analysing the same. In addition, mind or soul, according to Descartes, is sublime in nature, which seeks no boundaries to move from one place to the other within the entire universe (31). On the contrary, body remains confined to some specific area, where it has to undergo different processes in order to fulfil the requirements related to its mobility from one place to the other. In addition, body is mortal, while the soul is immortal; it is, therefore, soul is much loftier and sublime than body in the eyes of Descartes. He also asserts that man is alive till the time he is bestowed with the power of thinking. It is therefore he states that â€Å"I think; it is therefore, I exist† (Hill, 3). However, being a true believer of the Jewish traditions, Leibniz follows the philosophy his religious teachings present to humanity. Consequently, he does not agree with the Descartes’ doctrine in its full swing, and without incurring a contradictory argument. He is of the view that there is one entity in the form of two independent but interrelated organs i.e. mind and body, which thou gh work independently without much collaboration with each other, yet they cannot be declared as indifferent to one another altogether. Leibniz holds, according to Broad, that there certainly exist the corporeal substances in the universe; however, each and every substance is actually a living organism, and contains a unique identity in it (87). Moreover, since every organism has its own