Can mind exist with out the presence of body? Rene' Descartes in his Meditations on the First Philosophy, comes to the conclusion that mind and body are distinct from one another, therefore mind is not dependent on body. Descartes uses an example of a sailor to a ship. In his example Descartes states, "I am present to my body in the way a sailor is present in a ship," meaning mind is like a navigator to the body, although working together both mind and body are two separate entities (53). Mind does not depend on body because mind and body can be conceived independently of one another having distinct differences.
             In Meditation Six Descartes argues that mind and body are independent. With the existence of God, Descartes explains that things can be understood, and if one thing can be understood without another, that would define the two things as separate (51). When applied to the argument that mind is not dependent on Body, Descartes states,
             "And although perhaps (or rather, as I shall soon say, assuredly) I have a body that is very closely joined to me, nevertheless, because on the one hand I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, insofar as I am merely a thinking thing and not an extended thing, and because on the other hand I have a distinct idea of a body, insofar as it is merely an extended thing and not a thinking thing, it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it" (51).
             Schizophrenics, people having two separate and distinct identities, in either state are seemingly identical. Both personalities are present in the same body but both are not in any way the same. Both are distinct from one another by having different thoughts, yet both co-exist in one body and are separate because one personality can be independently conceived without the other. This example supports the claim that two things, although seemingly identical as one, like mind and body, are not dependen
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