Substance dualism is the ontological view that there exists two sorts of substances; mental and physical (material and immaterial). The existence of the substances are fundamentally distinct and exist independently of each other. If the soul can survive the death of the body, then there is the possibility of an after-life. Plato and Descartes are notorious for substance dualism which is also known as mind-body dualism, the believe that the soul is able to live on without the presence of the physical substance, the body. In this essay I will describe and assess the argument of substance dualism postulated by Rene Descartes (1596-1650). My thesis is that Descartes’ argument for substance dualism is not very persuasive and Gilbert Ryle manages
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Descartes does not take into consideration what happens when the brain is damaged, under the influence of drugs and alcohol or affected by mental health. If minds and bodies were really distinct, then the mental substance would not be compromised and not be affected by each other. In my opinion, this is the strongest argument against substance dualism as it addresses the problem that in order for the mind and body to actually be separate, these influences would have no impact on the …show more content…
He accuses Descartes of making a category mistake. A category mistake arises from misunderstanding the logical category of an expression for example Thursday is purple. Ryle suggests that Descartes is making a category mistake by talking about the mind and body (Hewitt, 2018). Ryle gives the example of someone looking at a football team and asking, “but where is the team spirit?” Expecting that ‘team spirit’ was a physical object like the football players. Another example Ryle gives to illustrate is point is the claim that we can say “I bought a left-hand glove” and “ I bought a right-hand glove” but we can’t say “ I bought a left-hand glove, a right-hand glove and a pair of gloves”. This can be substituted appropriately when applied to substance
Descartes does not take into consideration what happens when the brain is damaged, under the influence of drugs and alcohol or affected by mental health. If minds and bodies were really distinct, then the mental substance would not be compromised and not be affected by each other. In my opinion, this is the strongest argument against substance dualism as it addresses the problem that in order for the mind and body to actually be separate, these influences would have no impact on the …show more content…
He accuses Descartes of making a category mistake. A category mistake arises from misunderstanding the logical category of an expression for example Thursday is purple. Ryle suggests that Descartes is making a category mistake by talking about the mind and body (Hewitt, 2018). Ryle gives the example of someone looking at a football team and asking, “but where is the team spirit?” Expecting that ‘team spirit’ was a physical object like the football players. Another example Ryle gives to illustrate is point is the claim that we can say “I bought a left-hand glove” and “ I bought a right-hand glove” but we can’t say “ I bought a left-hand glove, a right-hand glove and a pair of gloves”. This can be substituted appropriately when applied to substance