What is Descartes saying Meditation 3?
René Descartes' (1596-1650) "Proofs of God's Existence" is a series of arguments that he posits in his 1641 treatise (formal philosophical observation) "Meditations on First Philosophy ," first appearing in "Meditation III. of God: that He exists." and discussed in more depth in "Meditation V: Of the essence of material things, and, again, of God, that He exists."
What is Descartes mind body problem?
The mind/body problem is also called the problem of dualism. Descartes believed that since the mind is atemporal and aspatial, it is indestructible. Only that which exists in time and is extended in space is destructible. This is why, according to rationalists, reason is innate and everlasting, while knowledge according to the empiricists, is learned over time. Descartes’ position on rationalism formed the foundation for the reliability of science.
What is the aim of Descartes Meditations?
Thus, Descartes had two main aims in the Meditations: 1. To provide a sound basis for scientific method. He aimed to show that the real source of scientific knowledge lay in the mind and not in the senses. 2. To show how science and religion could be compatible.
What was Descartes religion?
Descartes is therefore the precursor of Kant and Hegel and created a conception of God and religion that unite people in the world rather than divide humanity. The following of this school of philosophy means would mean the rejection of cynical theses of the clash of civilizations variety, which is based in a spurious conception of religion and ...
Is the mind a substance according to Descartes?
Hence, the power of God makes Descartes' perceived logical possibility of minds existing without bodies into a metaphysical possibility. As a result, minds without bodies and bodies without minds would require nothing besides God's concurrence to exist and, therefore, they are two really distinct substances.
What are Descartes two substances?
Descartes believed in only two kinds of substance: material body, which is defined by extension, and mental substance, which is defined by thought, which, in this context, is more or less equivalent to consciousness.
What is a substance in the philosophy of Descartes?
Descartes defines a substance as a thing that does not depend on anything else for its existence. That is to say, substance is a self-subsisting thing.
Why did Descartes believe in substance dualism?
Ultimately, Descartes' view is dualist because, although he renders all earthly substances material (and understandable to science), one thing remains that is a true immaterial substance with an essence: the human soul.
What makes a substance a substance?
A substance is a matter that has definite properties and composition. Every pure compound and element is a substance. Water, H2O, is a pure substance, a compound made of hydrogen and oxygen. Every pure substance is homogeneous. Pure substances can be divided into two categories – elements and compounds.
What is the mind/soul of Descartes?
For Descartes, the mind/soul is a res cogitans, a thinking thing . A substance is something which can exist independently of other substance, which possess properties and which persists through property change.
Can the mind and body be separated?
Therefore the mind cannot be separated. Therefore the body can be separated. Therefore, mind and body are entirely distinct types of thing. This is by far the strongest of Descartes’ arguments for his cause, but there are still some objections to counter and ultimately devalue it.
Do other people have minds?
Other people exhibit the same types of behaviour as cited above. Therefore, those behaviours also have mental causes. Therefore, other people have minds. However, the argument still does not fully refute the objection to substance dualism as it relies on mental causation and thus suffers from the interaction problem.
Is it conceivable that the mind and the body are distinct?
It is not a logical contradiction to say “the mind and body are distinct”in the same way in which it is a logical contradiction to say “being a bachelor and being an unmarried man are distinct”.
Was Descartes unsuccessful in his divisibility argument?
Based on the strong objection from Princess Elisabeth, the interaction problem, as well as the problem of other minds and the weakness of his conceivability argument, along with the objections to his divisibility argument, it seems logical to conclude that Descartes is unsuccessful in this regard.
The Traditional Concept of Substance
- Descartes’ philosophy of mind was a response to the erosion of the traditional Aristotelian concept of substance after the Middle Ages. According to the Aristotelian view, any substance is composed of matter that is determined by the form that is its essence. So every living thing is a …
The Immaterial Nature of The Soul
- Descartes attempts to reconcile having an immaterial soul within a largely scientific (and physicalist) framework. This leads to some surprising turns within his theory that are quite different from previous theories on substances. Ultimately, Descartes’ view is dualist because, although he renders all earthly substances material (and understandable to science), one thing r…
on The Way to Substance Dualism
- Descartes entertained a notion of body, and of matter in general, that escapes the traditional terminology of substances. Descartes’ famous cogito ergo sum, often translated as “I think therefore I am,” identifies thinking as the essence of every thing that thinks. What is important for the notion of substance is that the content of what that thing is deliberately remains open. In a l…
Reshaping The Concept of Substance
- As pointed out repeatedly, Descartes is working with and around a traditional philosophical terminology while trying to escape it. Therefore, it is worth seeing how he defines “substance” in his Principles of Philosophy. One interpretation is that substance means “independent existence” and hence applies only to God who is defined as perfect and not dependent on anything. Howev…
References
- Adam, Charles and Paul Tannery, eds. 1964-1976. Oeuvres de Descartes. Paris: Vrin. Campanella, Tommaso. 1999. Compendio di filosofia della natura, eds. Germana Ernst and Paolo Ponzio, sect. 61, 222. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Rusconi. Cottingham, John G., Robert Stoothoff, Dugald Murdoch, and Anthony Kenny, trans. 1985-1991. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, 3 vols…
Further Reading
- Ariew, Roger. 2011. Descartes among the Scholastics. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Cottingham, John. 1992. “Cartesian Dualism: Theology, Metaphysics, and Science.” In The Cambridge Companion to Descartes, ed. John Cottingham, 236-57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hassing, Richard F. 2015. Cartesian Psychophysics and the Whole Nature of Man: On Descartes’s Passio…