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Recommended: Man versus animal in Rene Descartes

In “Discourse on Method”, Rene Descartes argues that animals do not have souls. Descartes goes on to say that one must encompass a soul in order to have a mind; humans are thinking and rationalizing beings, thus they are the only ones capable of having souls. His argument is based on animals not having intelligence because this feature solely belongs to humans according to Descartes. Descartes reasoning is fairly logical, but has its flaws. In this paper, I will form a critical analysis of his reasoning and unmask the flaws of his reasoning.
Furthermore, Descartes raises important questions with his reasoning. His view on animals has withstood the chains of time, although his feelings towards animals have been the concern for many. Descartes states “that there are no men so dull and so stupid, that they are incapable of arranging various words together and of composing from them a discourse by means of which they might make their thoughts understood,” however there are not any animals amongst the species that can even come close in doing so. The foundation of his argument focuses on the basis of language being one of the easiest tasks accessible to man, except animals. Descartes believes animals, or beasts, to be merely machines created by God who have organs similar to humans. Although these organs function in the same manner as human organs do, they fail to arrange words in a comprehendible sequence. Descartes attributes to this failure as the lack of a rational soul and ability to reason.
According to Descartes a rational soul is independent of the body and must be “expressly created.” He accredits the actions of animals to natural instinct and drive, not to the rationalizing abilities of their soul. Nicolas Malebranche, a...

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Both, Harrison and Melehy, present valid objections to Descartes arguments. They both point out the flaws of his argument without saying that his arguments are completely false. Descartes arguments lack evidence and examples that are too easily refuted. Descartes uses objections that human beings exceed at in order to support his argument for animals not having a soul.
In conclusion, I have presented the flaws of Descartes reasoning for animals not encompassing souls. His views lack understanding of animal behavior and have been perceived as such by many contemporary philosophers. It is a complex and controversial topic on which many philosophers and scholars have pondered, but the soul cannot be merely associated with knowledge and behavior. Descartes’ reasons are interpretations of human interaction compared to that of animals, which is why they lack strength.

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