Do you believe you have a mind separate from the body?
Ultimately because this question provokes responses through theories and logic, there is no way to empirically conclude a certain answer, concepts have been categorized into Dualistic or Materialistic perspectives, which can be sub divided into various forms. Regarding the question, I hold a materialistic point of view in the belief that the mind is a network of filters in the brain, which develops through experience, culture and moral guidance and, consequently the mind cannot exist without the brain.
Dualism is the title given to the ideology that the mind and body are radically different things that exist independently from each other. Acknowledging the mind being an immaterial substance, containing mental properties, will interact separately with the physical surface of the body due to their fundamentally divisional conditions. It is a more natural, religious and anti-scientific approach. This table illustrates the principles in which dualists believe are the essence of the mind and body.
Material Substance Mental Substance
Physical objects extended in space
Measurable
Forms (locations, weight, textures)
Public
Mortal
Sensory organs
Attribute of thought
Forms of thought (images, emotions, beliefs, desires)
Private
Immortal
Equated with the soul
Mental Property Non-mental Property
Rene Descartes (1569-1650) proposed the first significant description of the nature of the mind and developed the early forms of Dualism. He is regarded as one of the most prolific philosophers regarding this question. He claimed that some mental events are caused ultimately through physical happenings and accordingly some physical events are caused wholly through mental phenomena. Descartes was a religious man with a sincere faith, making his mind over matter definition fulfil a religious agenda in which the soul/mind is immortal and therefore independent of its inhabited body. His...