As dualists, many philosophers, such as Descartes believe that the mind and body of one being are fundamentally different from one another and hence, the mind is not part of the physical realm. However, if this is the case, how can an interaction between these two radically distinctive entities occur? Mental causation, as an argument against dualism, is defined as "the bringing about of effects, physical or mental, by minds or goings-on in minds" (1). It is modelled around the question how mental causes, for example, the fear of spiders can result in physical reactions involving sweating, a change in blood pressure or even the loss of consciousness.…
I fully agree with Descartes’s concept of dualism. The mind is a lot more than chemical reactions going on in the brain. Thoughts, feelings, desire are all properties of the mind but not its parts. I…
Premise (1) is true because (i)nonphysical beings cannot causally influence physical beings; (ii)bodies are physical beings, and (iii) if substance dualism is true, then people…
In this paper I will be explaining and evaluating Argument 2, on page 36 of Jaegwon Kim's Philosophy of Mind, which supports Cartesian substance dualism. This argument, which I call the argument of transparency, attempts to support the first major tenant of Cartesian substance dualism: There are substances of two fundamentally different kinds in the world, mental substances and material substances—or minds and bodies. The essential nature of a mind is to think, be conscious, and engage in other mental activities; the essence of a body is to have spatial extensions (a bulk) and be located in space. (Kim 34)…
I defend substance dualism because, I believe the mind and the body have their own important regularities to follow, as for the physical body deals…
A second difficulty with the Cartesian position on substance dualism focuses on interactionism. In this variety of substance dualism, the mind and body can interact just as in Descartes’s variety. This variety states that there is a causal closure of the physical, which means that physical events have physical causes and that, therefore, mental causes are unnecessary. Interactionist dualism relates to…
Are mind and body essentially different? [Descartes, Conway, Cavendish] In 17th century philosophy, the mind-body issue surfaced many circulating viewpoints as to what the real relationship between the mind and the physical world is. This continuing dilemma brings up questions that have ongoing answers regarding if the mind and body are two substances or not, and how exactly the mind and body are related to each other. I am choosing to take a monist standpoint in this paper, expressing that the mind and body are in fact one substance and are not inherently different: matter cannot be infinitely divisible, there is no source of activity in the nature of matter being extended, and other body parts besides the mind have knowledge.…
Dualism vs Materialism The mind/body problem, the question of what is the relationship between the mind and the body, is commonly seen as a key issue in the philosophy of the mind (Sober, 2013, p. 204). The two categories of views discussed in Sober’s ‘Core Questions in Philosophy’ that attempt to resolve the mind/body problem are dualism and materialism. Dualism is the theory that the mind and the brain are two fundamentally different substances (Sober, 2013, p. 204). Conversely, materialism says that matter is the one and only fundamental substance in nature, and the notion that mental phenomena are a result of physical interactions follows (Sober, 2013, p. 204).…
I argue that substance dualism is true. Substance dualism claims that people and bodies are distinct. People, such as you and I, are nonphysical beings. We are connected human bodies, but we are not bodies. The reason is that (1) If we can exist without bodies, then we cannot be bodies.…
All of these interesting questions can be raised when this question is asked. Substance dualism makes the most sense when presented with the all of the options and coming from a place of faith when considering the mind body problem, because it seems clear that there is something both physical and nonphysical about one’s…
Such matters are able to be explained through the evidence of empirical research on the brain. Thus, it cancels out how there is an unknown development of interaction between the mind and the body since all development of the mind can be traced by to the how the brain of the body was impacted. Which leads to how physicalism is the stronger answer to the mind-body question given the argument of dualism lives us with more of a hypothetical…
In what follows, I will compare the two arguments and their connections to functionalism and empiricism. I will argue that Descartes’ substance theory is more plausible than Berkeley’s bundle theory because common sense tells us that we can perceive mind-independent objects, which counters with his theory. Descartes’ substance theory states that all sensible objects are made of a substance distinct from its properties. A substance, how Descartes defines it, is any entity that can exist on its own. The…
The argument in Descartes’ Sixth Meditation for the real distinction between the mind and the body ultimately secures his dualist position. Despite his argument appearing to make some mildly questionable leaps and seemingly ignore one potentially devastating point altogether, his position is clear and strong. I will begin by reconstructing Descartes’ argument, cover the grievances listed above, and then hope to argue that, despite these objections, Descartes’ position remains a sound metaphysical view. In the Sixth Meditation, Descartes begins by declaring that, firstly, all things one can clearly and distinctly perceive can be created by God, and secondly, if one can clearly and distinctly perceive one thing without calling to mind another,…
In Meditation 6, we learn that Descartes comes to the conclusion that the mind and body are two separate entities. His belief is that through the idea that mind and body are separate entities, without the other, one can still exist. He comes to this conclusion by arguing that the mind, a non-extended thinking thing, is an entirely different being than the body, an extended thinking thing, is. He believes that the mind and soul are united to the body but still can be separated from each other and still exist.…
Philosophy 001 Project 3: Descartes 1) Cartesian dualism refers to the philosophical view proposed by the French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes that describes and explains the relationship of the mind and body. According to this philosophical view, the Mind and the Body are two completely separate and different substances capable of interacting with one another. Descartes asserted that “[that is, [the] mind, by which I am what I am], is entirely and truly distinct from [the] body, and may exist without it.” (Descartes). Descartes described the mind as an immaterial substance whose “essence consists only in being a thinking thing [or a substance whose whole essence or nature is merely thinking]” (Descartes).…