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Meditations On First Philosophy: René Descartes And George Berkeley

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René Descartes and George Berkeley were the pioneers of 17th century philosophy, especially in the realm of metaphysics, the study of what is real. Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy were responsible for creating this novel idea of Cartesian Duality. This form of duality proposes that the mind controls the body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational mind, such as when people act out of passion. Passion, for instance, would be what Descartes considers a mode of thought. Modes are specifications relating to properties in the ordinary sense, while attributes are the components of what makes a substance what it is. Both material and mental substances have their individual attributes and modes.

In his Third Meditation,
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