Descartes And Dualism

Question 1

What is dualism?

Answer 1

The view that the mind and body are two separate entities

Question 2

What did descartes argue?

Answer 2

He argues that there is a two way interaction between mental wnd physical substances, the mind interacts with the body (like when we act out of passion)

This gave rise to the wrgument - how can the mind cause our limbs to move , and how can the body’s sense organs cause sensations in the mind when their nature’s are so different?

Question 3

What did descartes believe about the answer of it the body and mind can exist without eachother?

Answer 3

Provides a rational basis for hope in souls immortality

Question 4

What did descartes believe about religious motivation?

Answer 4

He believed that people wouldn’t pursue moral virtue without the prospect of an after life with rewards and punishments. Bevause the soul is not affected by bodily decay, it provides a rational basis for religion.

Question 5

What did descartes believe about scientific motivation?

Answer 5

He understood that scholastic thinkers used final causes as explanations.

This implied that the thing must have knowledge of things required to do it, and the means to attain it.
But if only minds have knowledge, how can inatimate objects like stones do this?

Question 6

What’s the Leibniz Law (argument against descartes)?

Answer 6

No two substances can be exactly alike. If this were true, they would be the same substance and not two different ones. Therefore, the soul and the body cannot be separate, because consciousness is a feature of the physical brain.
He did not agree with dualism