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Pros And Cons Of Dualism

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Backer and Goetz (2011) note that the dualists believe that human beings are made up of two different substances: the physical matter which is the body and that part that does not exist physically which is the mind or the soul. This claim has been sharply disputed by the materialists. According to them, materialists, on the other hand, strongly believe that both man and matter are one thing and cannot be separated because they are also the same. Materialists argue that human actions are never dependant on some mysterious force. Searle (2002) noted that the two leading scientists whose works have widely influenced this debate are Descartes who supported dualism and Hobbes who stood for materialism. This write up will consider the works of these two scientists in examining the position, strength and weaknesses of each of the two sides of this debate. …show more content…

Griffins (2000) noted that Descartes used the method of doubt in which he stated that all things that are doubted should be forgotten, because that is a clear indication that they are not true. Descartes had argued that by doing this, one will eventually get to know the real truth. On the other hand, Hobbes who sharply contradicted the arguments put by Descartes stated that for anything to be well known in philosophy, divine knowledge is required. According to him, the fact that no man has absolute knowledge makes it obviously impossible to be sure about

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