If you have ever studied coordinate geometry then you are familiar with the name ‘Rene Descartes’. If not then I’ll tell you, he is the one who introduces the Cartesian coordinate system, a fundamental aspect of the coordinate geometry. And you may not believe if I tell you that this mathematician was one of the “early birds” to study and analyze the brain. In fact in 1637, he proposed that ‘mind and body are interrelated, they affect each other and yet they are separate entities. The body’s movements are controlled by mechanical reflexes interacting in a non-physical soul (mind) located in the brain’s pineal gland.’ Many researchers call this theory as the “Cartesian Dualistic Theory”. Before this, there was a long held belief that said ‘one’s mind is his soul and the soul is the master of the body. The soul changes its body periodically. The body degenerates and the soul is the one that continues to exist.’ The Cartesian dualism came as challenge to this belief. On later years, people started to wonder ‘Is it what happens?’ And the research took some depths.
The year 1859 came along with Darwin’s ground breaking ‘Theory of Evolution’ that said that the development of mind took place along with physical characteristics and behaviors,
Today, there are so many branches of science that study the brain in different perspectives.
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