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Descartes Dualism Research Paper

1265 Words6 Pages

A timeless issue in the Philosophy of Mind is the relationship between the mind and the body. This essay is concerned with Dualism, which is the idea that the mind and body are distinct from one another. Dualism denies that the mind is simply the brain. It is a compelling theory as it gives us an explanation for the felt quality of experience that cannot be explained through purely physical matter. It could be said that Descartes was one of the most prominent dualists and offers an insightful argument to explain this type of phenomenon. There are 3 arguments which Descartes uses in favour of his Dualism, but in this essay I will be focusing on only one of the arguments, and this is his indivisibility argument. I first outline what this argument is. I then offer the first objection to this argument which involves split brain cases, which I will …show more content…

Descartes holds that the body is a material thing that has size, shape, extension, occupies space and is determined by mechanical laws (Lowe, 2000). The mind however is unlike the body as the mind cannot be measured in this way, and is not extended as it does not occupy space. Instead the mind is a thinking thing, an immaterial substance, which is made up of thoughts, emotions, beliefs and desires etc. We cannot see beliefs, desires and thoughts, and we cannot test for them so this is why Descartes dualism entails are distinct from the body as whilst the body can be measured as it occupies space we would have to ask the person directly what they are thinking and the body does not have this kind of intelligence. The human being is both matter and a thinking thing. Descartes believes that a person is a thinking thing that “doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines also, and perceives” (Descartes, p.1). THE QUOTE THAT DESCARTES ACTUALLY USES ABOUT BODY AND MIND BEING

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