Descartes' Views on the Topic of Philosophy of Mind

749 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Rene Descartes and his idea of knowledge

Descartes' Views on the Topic of Philosophy of Mind

Descartes has indeeed made some notable contributions towards the

philosophy of mind. It is the aim of this essay to discuss these

contributions.

Descartes is well known for being an avid dualist. This is the view

that the mind and body are understood to be seperate and distinct from

each other, but in some way causally connected. Descartes was no

exception and believed the mind and body to be two completely

different substances. He defines the body as an extended, non-thinking

substance and the mind as a non-extended, thinking sunstance. But it

not just these definitions that allow Descartes to adopt a dualistic

point of view. Descartes came to the conclusion in meditation I of his

discourse of method that any data received from the senses could be

doubted and therefore unreliable. As the body is known only through

the senses, Descartes was able to doubt the existence of such a body

and all other bodies for that. In meditation II however he arrives at

the knowledge that doubting the mind is incoherent, as a mind is

needed in order to proceed wth such doubts. Because the body can be

doubted and the mind can indubitedly not Descartes concludes that they

are distinct. This is known as Cartesian Dualism. However in

concluding that the mind and body are distinct Descartes is left with

the problem of explaining how they interact. The problem starts with

his concepton of the mind, which as stated earlier is a thinking,

non-extended substance, that Descartes believes isn't actually located

in the body but in a non-physical realm. How then does this

non-physical substance interact with...

... middle of paper ...

... in a geometircal form.

Second, the fact that our imagination is directed towards the ideas of

bodies, means it is possible that such bodies exist. Finally, the

faculty of sense perception is an entirely passive ability to receive

ideas of physical objects. As one does not have any control over such

ideas, it follows that the ideas must be produced by some external

source (ie: a body itself). Descartes also suggests that other bodies

must exist if a non-deceiving God exists. For a non-deceiving god

wouldn't allow Descartes to believe that something exists if infact it

wasn't real. As to whether Descartes believes other minds exist is a

question left unanswered. This is probably due to the fact that one

can only ever have direct access to one mind (their own), and

therefore can only be sure of the existence of one mind.

Show More
Related

  • An Examination of the Second Meditation of Descartes

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    Baird and Kaufmann, the editors of our text, explain in their outline of Descartes' epistemology that the method by which the thinker carried out his philosophical work involved first discovering and being sure of a certainty, and then, from that certainty, reasoning what else it meant one could be sure of. He would admit nothing without being absolutely satisfied on his own (i.e., without being told so by others) that it was incontrovertible truth. This system was unique, according to the editors, in part because Descartes was not afraid to face doubt. Despite the fact that it was precisely doubt of which he was endeavoring to rid himself, he nonetheless allowed it the full reign it deserved and demanded over his intellectual labors. "Although uncertainty and doubt were the enemies," say Baird and Kaufmann (p.16), "Descartes hit upon the idea of using doubt as a tool or as a weapon. . . . He would use doubt as an acid to pour over every 'truth' to see if there was anything that could not be dissolved . . . ." This test, they explain, resulted for Descartes in the conclusion that, if he doubted everything in the world there was to doubt, it was still then certain that he was doubting; further, that in order to doubt, he had to exist. His own existence, therefore, was the first truth he could admit to with certainty, and it became the basis for the remainder of his epistemology.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Descartes's View Of Thinking

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    Descartes claims that intellect as thinking being extended as to the Aristotelian claiming intellect as a thought. He claims that there must be a conception of what the thing that thinks underlies the Cogito inference in which registers these sufficient grounds. He establishes this argument by suggesting that it must exclude anything that requires the existence of anybody from the essential properties of the ‘they’ that thinks. Therefore claiming that mind is an extended thinking thing and the body being a non-extended thinking thing. He established these claims by first questioning everything he sees and doubting of everything that he sees is false and that his deceitful memory represents ever existed. Also excluding the senses and questioning

    Read More

  • Mind Body Dualism

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    Descartes claims there is a real distinction between the mind and body. In the Second Meditation the Meditator establishes his existence, that he is a thinking thing and the distinction between the mind and body. Descartes claims he is a thinking thing and since he can think he exists, same too with the mind. The mind is a thing that thinks therefore the mind exists. Using the method of doubt discussed in the First Meditation, Descartes is able to doubt the existence of the body but not the mind. Descartes cannot doubt that he has a mind , but can doubt he has a body therefore Descartes is a thinking thing and not a body. He can exists as a thinking thing without a body because the body's existence can be doubted.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Meditations By Descartes

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our mind and our body are undoubtedly separate from each other. A mind can survive without a body, and, likewise, a body is just house for the mind. In The Meditations, Descartes describes this concept in his dualist theory in the second of multiple Meditations. We can reach this conclusion by first understanding that the mind can survive any destruction of the body, and then realizing that you are identical to your mind and not your body. In other words, you are your thoughts and experiences – not your physical body. Finally, you cannot doubt your own existence, because the act of doubting is, itself, and act of thinking, and to think is to exist as a “thinking thing,” or Res Cogitans.

    Read More

  • Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy

    1961 Words  | 4 Pages

    In constructing his argument for God's existence, Descartes analyzes several aspects of the nature of human thought. He begins by outlining the various types of thoughts we have, which include ideas, thoughts, volitions and judgments. Ideas, or images of ideas can only exist within the mind and are certain of existence. Volitions, or choices are firmly within the mind and are also certain. Emotions, such as love, fear, hate, all exist in the mind and are certain as well. Judgments involve reference to effects outside the mind and are subject to doubt. Therefore, judgments are not certain and distinct. Descartes believes that images, volitions, and emotions are never false but it is our judg...

    Read More

  • Descartes Sixth Meditation

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Sixth Meditation, Descartes makes a point that there is a distinction between mind and body. It is in Meditation Two when Descartes believes he has shown the mind to be better known than the body. In Meditation Six, however, he goes on to claim that, as he knows his mind and knows clearly and distinctly that its essence consists purely of thought. Also, that bodies' essences consist purely of extension, and that he can conceive of his mind and body as existing separately. By the power of God, anything that can be clearly and distinctly conceived of as existing separately from something else can be created as existing separately.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Individuation and Identity In Descartes´ Philosophical View of the Mind-Body Dualism

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Surprisingly dualism has become synonymous with Rene Descartes that often times it is many just referred to by many as Cartesian dualism, as if this was the decisive line of attack to the issue. The theory behind dualism is that the mind and the body, that mind and matter, are two distinct things. Descartes well-thought-out the difficulty of the location of the mind and came to the conclusions that the mind was a completely separate entity from the body. Descartes stated that he is a subject of conscious thought and experience and thus cannot be nothing more than spatially extended matter. The fundamental nature of the human being, or the mind, are unable to be material but are obliged to be no...

    Read More

  • Descartes Conceivability Argument Analysis

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    Outline and assess Descartes' arguments for the conclusion that mind and body are distinct substances.

    Read More

  • Descartes' First Meditation

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six different steps that he named "Meditations" because of the state of mind he was in while he was contemplating all these different ideas. His six meditations are "One:Concerning those things that can be called into doubt", "Two:Concerning the Nature of the Human mind: that it is better known than the Body", "Three: Concerning God, that he exists", "Four: Concerning the True and the False", "Five: Concerning the Essence of Material things, and again concerning God, that he exists" and finally "Six: Concerning the Existence of Material things, and the real distinction between Mind and Body". Although all of these meditations are relevant and necessary to understand the complete work as a whole, the focus of this paper will be the first meditation.

    Read More

  • Cartesian Dualism vs Logical Behaviorism

    1489 Words  | 3 Pages

    René Descartes was the 17th century, French philosopher responsible for many well-known philosophical arguments, such as Cartesian dualism. Briefly discussed previously, according to dualism, brains and the bodies are physical things; the mind, which is a nonphysical object, is distinct from both the brain and from all other body parts (Sober 204). Sober makes a point to note Descartes never denied that there are causal interactions between mental and physical aspects (such as medication healing ailments), and this recognition di...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Descartes’ Mind/Body Distinction

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes states “I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in as far as I am only a thinking and unextended thing, and as, on the other hand, I possess a distinct idea of body, in as far as it is only an extended and unthinking thing”. [1] The concept that the mind is an intangible, thinking entity while the body is a tangible entity not capable of thought is known as Cartesian Dualism. The purpose of this essay is to examine how Descartes tries to prove that the mind or soul is, in its essential nature, entirely distinct from the

    Read More

  • History of Psychology

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    While the great philosophical distinction between mind and body in western thought can be traced to the Greeks, it is to the influential work of René Descartes, French mathematician, philosopher, and physiologist, that we owe the first systematic account of the mind/body relationship. As the 19th century progressed, the problem of the relationship of mind to brain became ever more pressing.

    Read More

  • Descartes: Relationship Between Mind and Body

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Meditation Six entitled “Concerning the Existence of Material Things, and Real Distinction between the Mind and Body”, one important thing Descartes explores is the relationship between the mind and body. Descartes believes the mind and body are separated and they are two difference substances. He believes this to be clearly and distinctly true which is a Cartesian quality for true knowledge. I, on the other hand, disagree that the mind and body are separate and that the mind can exist without the body. First, I will present Descartes position on mind/body dualism and his proof for such ideas. Secondly, I will discuss why I think his argument is weak and offer my own ideas that dispute his reasoning while I keep in mind how he might dispute my argument.

    Read More

  • Descartes’, Spinoza’s, and Leibniz’s Response to the Mind-Body Problem

    2994 Words  | 6 Pages

    Descartes is a very well-known philosopher and has influenced much of modern philosophy. He is also commonly held as the father of the mind-body problem, thus any paper covering the major answers of the problem would not be complete without covering his argument. It is in Descartes’ most famous work, Meditations, that he gives his view for dualism. Descartes holds that mind and body are com...

    Read More

  • Cartesian Dualism and Gilbert Ryle

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    two distinct kinds of entities, bodies and minds (1). All objects that exist or can exist belong to one of these categories. The two forms are said to be mutually exclusive and commonly defined by fundamentally different characteristics, yet both are required to accurately define the world around us. According to Descartes, the body is a tangible physical substance (the unthinking thing), whereas the mind is an intangible non-physical substance (the thinking thing) and comes metaphysically before the body (3). The mind and body casually interact with one another while maintaining their distinctiveness: the eyes perceive objects and then focus the image to the pineal gland, where it transmits the information to the non-physical mind; the mind then may transmit a signal to the body, telling it what to do. The mind and body are independent from one another, yet they work in harmony; the mind receives signals from the body and the body responds to signals from the mind.

    Read More

More about Descartes' Views on the Topic of Philosophy of Mind

Open Document