Princess Elizabeth's Criticism Of Cartesian Dualism

Princess Elizabeth questioned the ability of the two substances of Cartesian Dualism to interact, and thereby introduced the problem of causal interaction. She essentially questioned how the mind (immaterial) causally interacts with the body (material), and therefore demanded a description of the mechanisms that give the mind and the body this power . In this paper, I will argue that Princess Elizabeth’s criticism of Cartesian Dualism successfully discredits Descartes’s theory by exposing the theory’s weakness in describing the mechanisms (the how) which enable the causal relation between the mind and the body. I will firstly provide a description of Cartesian Dualism, then explain Princess Elizabeth’s criticism of the theory and reformulate her demands in the terms of Hume’s theory of causality, and …show more content…
For instance, Princess Elizabeth’s understanding of causation cannot explain all causal interactions (e.g. the relation of time and the body which causes the process of aging). Therefore, there are some things that we cannot truly comprehend. One of those things, according to Descartes, is the causal relationship between the mind and the body. In this paper I have argued that Princess Elizabeth’s criticism exposed an important weakness in Descartes’s theory. Princess Elizabeth questioned the ability of an immaterial substance to interact with a material substance, and requested an explanation of how mental events cause physical events. A reformulation of the Princess’s demands by appealing to Hume’s account of causation helped expose the theory’s weakness. In reply to her demands, Descartes insisted that the interaction is caused by the basic notion of the union of the material substance and the immaterial substance, and consequently cannot be explained. Descartes’s reply did not meet the Princess’s demands, and therefore, Descartes’s theory seems to be