Descartes Substance Dualism

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In the philosophy of mind, dualism is known as the separation of the mind from the bodies physical states. Dualism is the idea that our minds are more that just the bodies brain. This means that parts of us are non-physical in nature. Further, there are two different types of dualism and those are property dualism and substance dualism.
According to substance dualism, mental properties and physical properties are completely different from one another. “On this view you are your mind and your mind is a completely distinct thing from your physical body.”(Mankik, p. 15) Therefore, studying the physical properties alone, like the brain, would not be enough to understand the non-physical mind.
Property dualism, on the other hand, is the belief
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Descartes explains that he is able to understand and imagine a three sided triangle. He understands that a triangle is three sided and further and he can also imagine the three sided figure in his mind's eye. Yet, when Descartes hears of a chiliagon, he can understand that the chiliagon has one thousand sides but when he tries to picture this image in his imagination he can not. This begins to show the weakness of the imagination. Therefore, this leads Descartes to believe that the imagination can not be the only hallmark of his mind because he now knows that he continues to exist even when he is unable to imagine something. This in turn, brings Descartes to another conclusion: that his imagination must depend on something besides the mind in order for it to …show more content…
“On her release she sees a ripe tomato in normal conditions, and so has the sensation of red. Her first reaction is that she knows more about the kind of experiences others have when looking at ripe tomatoes.” (1986, p. 294). The question introduced in this experiment is whether or not Mary learned anything new upon her release from the black and white room or if she just gained a new ability. In response to this, Jackson states that even though Mary knows all the physicalities of color, she still does not know how color will affect her, therefore, when she is released, she does in fact gain some new knowledge pertaining to the colors of the world. In the end, Jackson concludes that physicalism, the belief that the world consists only of its physicalities, is false (1986, p. 295).
Another philosopher to discuss property dualism was David Chalmers. Chalmers “Consciousness and its Place in Nature”, sets out to discuss what exactly consciousness is. He states that one is conscious where there is something it is like to be that being (2003, p. 2). This just means that since many people know what it is like to have a(n) emotional experience, painful experience, sensory experience, etc., that all these people are conscious because they are able to sympathize and empathize, and have some understanding as to what other people are feeling and

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