Descartes Dualism Flashcards
What are Descartes’ Overall Conclusions?
- The mind and body are distinct substances, (non-extendable, thinking thing and extendable, non-thinking thing respectively)
- The mind is a better knower than the body (wax analogy)
- The mind and body causally interact
Outline the main points in Meditation 1 (3)
- All of the senses are subject to doubt
- This is proven through the Dream analogy
- And the evil demon analogy
Outline main point in Meditation 2
There is certain knowledge, cogito ergo sum, I am thinking, I exist
Explain the Cogito
Although the Evil Demon can deceive me in every way the fact that I can doubt means I am thinking.
Even if the evil demon deceives me being deceived is a form of thinking
Outline Counters for the Cogito
Tautology- Cogito is meaningless as nothing has been discovered much like ‘all bachelors are unmarried’
‘I’ is an assumption- thinking doesn’t necessarily imply a thinker.
Descartes responds that cogito is not an argument but an intuition.
Russel- ‘I’ implies personal identity
the ‘I’ could be constantly changing
What is the ‘I’?
Our essence is as a thinking thing
Descartes reaches this as he crosses out that we could be people, rational animals, body or soul
Why does Descartes cross out that our essence could be human, rational animal, body or soul?
Our essence must be indubitable
Man- leads to further chains of doubt
Rational animal- requires definitions for ‘rational’ and ‘animal’
Body- the body is dubitable
Soul- the soul is too linked to the body, it implies that the body exists which is dubitable
What else is the ‘I’ besides a thinking thing?
Descartes remarks that thinking includes the act of doubting, understanding, affirming, willing, imagining and perceiving
Explain the Wax Analogy and what point is being drawn from it?
When the wax melts it changes colour, shape, size, temperature.
If we only had our senses we would view it as a separate substance
Our imagination cannot recognise the essence of the wax as it cannot imagine the infinite forms the wax may take
Therefore our mind and reason is what knows the wax’s essence remains
Therefore our mind is a better knower than the body
Counter for the Wax analogy
Don’t our sense play at least some part in recognising the wax
Without them, we wouldn’t even know there was wax to begin with
Explain the Coats/Hats analogy
When looking off a skyscraper our senses see only coats and hat but our minds reason that there are people under them. Our imagination could lead us to believe anything is under the coats.
The mind is better known, why?
- The world is dubitable but the mind is certain
- The wax could be fake but the perceptions of it cannot be
What is the standard form for the 6th meditation?
P1. Everything which I clearly and distinctly understand is capable of being created by God so as to correspond exactly with my understanding of it.
P2. I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in so far as I am simply a thinking, non-extended thing.
P3. I have a distinct idea of body, in so far as this is simply an extended, non-thinking thing.
P4. A thinking, non-extended thing does not depend on an
extended, non-thinking thing for it’s existence.
C. Therefore, I am distinct from my body (and can exist
without it).
Explain the Interactionist Problem
Descartes infers that the mind and body causally interact.
How can a physical substance and nonphysical substance possibly interact?
Descartes suggests some part of the brain does this process but doesn’t explain how which is more important.
Explain the Categorical Mistake with an example
Descartes has reached the conclusion that the mind and body are different but assumes this means they are also different substances.
This is the Categorical Mistake
e.g. A man is given a tour of Padua College. He sees the classrooms, the hall, the library and the ovals. However afterwards he is annoyed as he has not been shown Padua College.
This is a categorical mistake he has made by assuming the buildings/ ovals and Padua College aren’t one in the same
