Lesson 2 Flashcards
Who was Descartes and what did he do?
-René Descartes was a 17th-century French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
-A substance dualist -the mind (or soul) is a different and distinct substance from the body
-Descartes agenda was religiousand involved God
-modern philosopher when compared with ancient Greek scholars such as Plato and Aristotle
-attempted to establish a degree of certainty in a world wherever growing scepticism who is apparent as he was unable to doubt his existence as a thinking being this was his starting point for his arguments
Descartes essential argument
Descartes’ essential argument is that the mind and body are distinct substances with different essential properties. Matter or extended substance and mind or mental substance.
Mind-body dualism
-Descartes is famously known for his dualism, which asserts that the mind and the body are two distinct substances.
-He argued that the mind (or soul) is non-physical and exists independently of the body, while the body is a physical substance.
Cogito, Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am)
-Descartes’ famous statement, “Ithink, therefore I am,” reflects his certainty about the existence of the thinkingmind.
-He believed that even if everything else could be doubted orquestioned, the existence of the thinking self was undeniable proof of hisexistence as a conscious being.
Pineal gland
-This is the small portion of the brain that lies between two hemispheres he considered this was the point at which the mind controlled the body
-His suggestion obviously does not work because locating mind-brain Interaction anywhere in the brain solves nothing.
-It doesn’t tell us the ‘how’ it merely states ‘it interacts here’.
-Descartes proposed that the pineal gland in the brain served as the point of interaction between the non-physical mind and the physical body.
-Hebelieved this tiny gland was where the mind influenced bodily functions and received sensory information.
Animal and Human Souls
-Descartes also distinguished between animal souls and human souls.
-He believed that animals were like complex machines, lackingrational souls, while humans possessed rational souls responsible for consciousness, thought, and self-awareness.
Immortality of the Soul:
Descartes believed that the human soul was immortal, suggesting that it could exist independently of the body and continue to exist afterdeath.
Descartes argument
-Descartes’ essential argument is that the mind and body are distinct substances with
different essential properties.
-Matter or extended substance and mind or mental substance.
-In other words, he is arguing for substance dualism and Descartes wants to show that the
soul can exist without the body.
First proof
First proof: The argument from doubt - “I think therefore I am “[Cogito, ergo sum]
▪ I can doubt that my body exists
▪ But I cannot doubt but I exists as a thinking thing
▪ Therefore, I am not identical with my body.
Second proof
Second proof: The argument from divisibility and non-divisibility
▪ All bodies are extended in space and therefore divisible
▪ Minds are not extended in space and therefore not divisible
▪ Minds are therefore radically different from bodies
Second proof - analogy
Just as a chair can be broken, a book can be ripped and spring can be permanently altered,
bodies can also change and are divisible. However, the state of mind cannot be divided in
other words your mental states such as sensors can increase and decrease but cannot be
divided.
Third proof
Third proof: The argument from clear and distinct perception
▪ Whatever I clearly indistinctly perceive as two different things can be created by God
as two different things
▪ I have a clear and distinct idea of myself as a non-extended thinking thing
▪ I have the clear indistinct idea of my body as an extended non thinking thing
▪ So, I and my body can exist apart from each other
-So, I am distinct from my body
Descartes main beliefs
He believed that the body and soul were two different ‘substances’. The body was matter and all matter was simply extension and describable in terms of space, depth, distance or length.
Soul different from body
-The soul or ‘mind’ as Descartes saw it, was radically different to the matter of the body.
-It had no place in the spacio-temporal world.
-It was not in motion but simply an indivisible thinking thing. In his work Meditations, Descartes outlines the fact that his body is divisible.
Issie of interactionism
-Descartes believed that the mind and body were two distinct substances: one of extension and divisibility, the other non-corporeal and indivisible.
-The issue surrounds how the two substances could be seen to interact.
