The Conceptual Boundaries Of Descartes Essay

René Descartes believed that the mind and body are separate; that the senses could not always be trusted, but that because we as humans are able to think about our existence, we possess some sort of entity separate than our fleshly body. I believe this separate entity to be a soul”an immaterial and

Descartian dualism is one of the most long lasting legacies of Rene Descartes’ philosophy. He argues that the mind and body operate as separate entities able to exist without one another. That is, the mind is a thinking, non-extended entity and the body is non-thinking and extended. His belief elicited a debate over the nature of the mind and body that has spanned centuries, a debate that is still vociferously argued today. In this essay, I will try and tackle Descartes claim and come to some conclusion as to whether Descartes is correct to say that the mind and body are distinct.

Descartes’ argue that mind is better known than body by first claiming humans as fundamentally rational, meaning “a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling,” ( Descartes, 19) he therefore argues that humans have the ability to know their proper minds clearly and distinctly. He proposes the conception of the mind where the imagination and the senses are also inherent capabilities of the body (faculties), specifically powers of the mind.

     This is where the wax argument comes into play. All the properties of the piece of wax that we perceive with the senses change as the wax melts. This is true as well of its primary properties, such as shape, extension and size. Yet the wax remains the same piece of wax as it melts. We know the wax through our mind and judgement, not through our senses or imagination. Therefore, every act of clear and distinct knowledge of corporeal matter also provides even more certain evidence for the existence of Descartes as a thinking thing. Therefore his mind is much clearer and more distinctly know to him than his body. At this

In Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes does and experiment with wax to try to prove that things actually exist in this world. This essay is going to prove how we can tell that things actually exist and what can perceive the wax.

Summary: The problem of the soul continues as Descartes suggested that the human is composed of two completely different substances; a physical body which Descartes compares with a machine, and a non-physical mind, related to the soul, that allows humans to think and feel even if it has no “measurable dimensions” (67). But Elizabeth put in doubt his ideologies when she realized that a non-physical thing doesn’t have the strength to push and move the body. This led to several questions unanswered and also let space for other materialist theories such as behaviorism, mind-brain identity, and functionalism, which also fail in offering an explicit solution.

However, one must remember that by “mind” Descartes meant only “a thing that thinks” (Meditations, p. 20), which is to say that thinking is the essence of the mind. From this kernel of truth Descartes builds up the rest of his understanding of the mind and part of this understanding is that the mind is entirely accessible to itself and in this sense is one unified thing. However, today the

In Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, he introduces the divisibility argument for his idea of mind-body dualism. It argues that the mind is distinct from the body and that they are different "substances". The argument has two premises; the mind is indivisible and the body is divisible. In this essay, I will interpret Descartes' argument by discussing the key points of these premises and how they are supported. I will also be incorporating my own thoughts on the argument to determine whether the divisibility argument is enough to validate the idea of mind-body dualism.

In conclusion, this paper has explained Descartes view on bodies and animals, and analyzed whether Descartes believed that animals had minds. Explanation of Descartes view of minds and bodies has been provided, indicating that he believed that the mind and body were “tightly jointed”, as well as, his view of how the body would act without a mind. From these explanations, we have been able to conclude and explain why that Descartes would believe that animal do have minds.

Descartes discusses the existence of the human mind as a separate entity from the human body, including the a passage confirming his own existence as nothing but a thinking entity, in his writing Principles of Philosophy (I. 63-65). Following his rejection of all knowledge, in order to divide what was false from what could be proven, Descartes strives to prove the existence of his own mind, as a basis from which to prove the existence of the rest of the universe. I think his premise is flawed, Through the concept of doubt, he finds a contradiction (I am thinking about not

Since Descartes was able to think, he knew that he existed ultimately. With this in mind, Descartes reckoned that a person 's "self" illustrates their identity. Descartes states: “that he possesses a body intimately conjoined... and that he has a clear and distinct idea of himself, inasmuch...it is certain that this I [that is to say, my soul by which I am what I am], is entirely and absolutely distinct from my body, and can exist without it" (Descartes, Meditations On First Philosophy, pg.29). In fact, Descartes proposes that the body connects dually with the mind, which he believes the body is "divisible", and the mind as "indivisible", but he also informs the readers that he knows certainly who he is. Not only did Descartes deem this information as true, but he was adamant about the possibility of living without a soul. In particular, Descartes depicts a vivid picture of how the

In his work Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641, René Descartes sets out to establish a set of indubitable truths for the sciences. He begins by discarding all of his beliefs, then works to rebuild his beliefs based on careful thought. Descartes clearly states this goal, saying in the First Meditation, “I will work my way up… I will accomplish this by putting aside everything that admits of the least doubt” (I, 17). He is able to establish his own existence, but struggles to move beyond his internal thoughts to discuss external objects. Descartes decides that the Christian God is the bridge he needs to escape the confines of his own mind, and argues for the existence of God in the Third Meditation in order to move on to discussing the physical world. In this paper I will argue that Descartes’ rationalistic project would have been improved without an appeal to the Christian God, although I will also argue that Descartes thinks this appeal is necessary.

Descartes, a well known philosopher, proposed that the mental and physical components are different things. Considering they are casual connections between the mind and body and the mind and body are two independent substances. I will argue that these premises proposed by Descartes are not reasonable and the theory which best accounts for the “problem of interaction” is the identity theory. Rene Descartes opposed that the mind was a separate substance from the body which then created the mind-body problem, Under Descartes opposed Cartesian dualism he believed there was other physical substances along with his mind such as his body. He then thought there was two various beings that the universe contains. One being physical substances which would be our body in this case and the second being non-physical which would be our mind. Furthermore, he believed even though the mind and body are two different entities; however there yet still seems to be causal interactions between the two which can typically be explained through the brain. He then proceeds to lay down certain premises which helps him reach the conclusion which is made. The first premise made is that there is existence of the mind, but he cannot argue the same thing about the body. The rejection of the dualism laid down by Descartes is the main causation which leads to the “problem of interaction”

Montreal has big potholes. Lots of them. If one is to truly understand the philosophy of Hume and Descartes, one must understand what they would do with crummy roads as civil engineers in Montreal. Hume would probably repave the roads based on the success of past designs and the results of empirical data. Descartes, on the other hand, would probably leave nothing unscathed after attacking the problem with reason, scrapping the existing roadmap and re-building roads with new foundations and new directions. This allegory underlines a central question of a Hume-Descartes comparison: if Hume’s road to knowledge needs improvement, does Descartes know where to start or where he is going? The following

Since people cannot tell from dream and reality if the dream is not over, Descartes thinks all the things his body feels may not be true. Besides him, others cannot be proved to exist. His theory is based on one fact, which is all the knowledge he received before are wrong, or at least is not 100% true. Descartes knows himself exists because he is always thinking, and he admit that his mind will make mistakes from time to time. By using the example of wax, he denies his senses and get into the conclusion that other things beside him is the extension of his mind. He believes the world is an extension of himself because he knows and understand the world by thinking about it. Personally speaking, I agree with him that mind is an important part, or a necessary part of self. A person would not be a person if he or she cannot think. Thinking determines what people’s understanding of the whole world. However, his theory tears apart body and mind, which I totally disagree. I believe body is a drive for person’s mind, and without body, mind can never exists. Descartes do not admit the true existence of human body or others, but he uses his senses and his body every time he thinks.