René Descartes

The mind body problem is “the system of ancient questions about the nature of the mental and its relations to the bodily (Bunge 1980).” It is the question about how one’s mind can at all work with one’s body and the relationship that the two have with each other. How does one’s mind control one’s body? What are the implications of differing beliefs on this point? Does this relationship reframe an idea of freewill or determinism? All of these interesting questions can be raised when this question…

How successful is the Ontological Argument in Proving the Existence of God? For centuries, the existence of God has been questioned and argued by many different philosophers. One of the “big three” arguments is the Ontological Argument, an argument that could be said to be valid, as it has a good structure, but the soundness is questionable. The argument was founded by St Anselm (1033-1109) on the basis of two things: firstly, that God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived” ,…

John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) is often cited as the foundational document of the "blank slate" view. Locke was criticizing René Descartes' claim of an innate idea of God universal to humanity. Locke's view was harshly criticized in his own time. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury complained that by denying the possibility of any innate ideas, Locke "threw all order and virtue out of the world", leading to total moral relativism. Locke's was not the…

concluded that his perceived interactions with the physical world implied a body. Descartes considered the mind to distinct from the body, not subject to death, or material qualities, for him, it was an unextended substance-less entity, possessed only by humans. The body, however, had substance and extension, it was restrained and functioned by virtue of mechanical principles. The existence of the two entities produced Descartes mind-body dualism, which he further distinguished by separating…

Does the First Cause Argument successfully show that God exists? Introduction: The First Cause Argument is a valid argument in my opinion, and in this essay I will attempt to show the reader that the argument is in fact valid, as well as showing that the premises are true, which leads to the First Cause Argument being sound. By doing this I hope to convince the reader to accept that the First Cause Argument successfully shows that God exists. A basic outline of the argument goes as follows: •…

Aristotle which felt that mental processes were learned from experience. Although this “nature” vs “nuture” debate remains, the next fundamental players tried to differentiate the mind from the brain philosophically and experimentally. While Rene Descartes posited that the brain is made from substance and the mind or soul was made from nonsubstance, Thomas Hobbes believed that the mind is a function of the brain. Gall, Flourens and Broca approached this philosophical debate experimentally. Gall…

Scientific Revolution The scientific revolution of the seventeenth century caused change in worldview Scientific Thought in 1500 European ideas about the universe were based on ancient ideas Four elements: air, fire, water, earth A force moved an object at a constant speed and the object would stop as soon as that force was moved Aristotle’s ideas about astronomy and physics were accepted for two thousand years Showed correctness to Christianity because it put human beings at the center of the…

Parliament to attend the Westminster School in London. After finishing there he was admitted to Christ Church, in Oxford. John was bored with the average materials taught in every day class, he found the works of modern philosophers such as René Descartes much more interesting. It is thanks to Richard Lower for introducing…

Homer as talking parrot and unintentional Descartes What we are seeing in the example of Homer is his ability to retain ideas about what a work of art is with an inability to discern the difference between the idea of the work of art and the failed DIY BBQ pit project. Essentially, instead of creating works of art after the BBQ pit incident, Homer parrots the idea of art by recreating similar conditions to that of the BBQ pit, which by association in homer’s mind is no longer a DIY project but…

Why and how do things change? What explains transformation of matter? (Chemistry) The idea of understanding what fundamental matter makes up the universe has always been one of science’s most sought after concept throughout history. The development of theories explaining the transformation of matter has progressed from a vague, philosophical Greek definition to the European Enlightment modern understanding of matter and ending with Dalton’s universally accepted “Atomic Theory”. Although this…