Descartes Dualism
How successful are Descartes’ arguments for the real distinction of mind from body? Upon which would you put the most weight?
Using the arguments from doubt, from clear and distinct perceptions, and from simplicity, Descartes attempts to prove in “The Meditations” that the mind (that is the soul or the “thinking thing”) is distinct and separate from the body (the extended, unthinking thing). This view is now known as Cartesian Dualism. In this essay I will outline Descartes’ main arguments, some of the criticisms of dualism, and my opinion as to which argument I perceive as the most convincing.
The first argument in Cartesian Dualism is the Argument from doubt. Descartes starts by concluding that although he can conceive the possibility that his perception of his own body could in fact be false, he cannot conceive the possibility that he is without a mind. This is because by the very act of doubting that he is a thinking thing, there must be something there in the first place to do the doubting. The next step Descartes takes is to propose that the mind and body are two separate and distinct entities, and his argument goes as follows:
I am certain that I am a thinking thing
I am not certain that I am a physical thing
Therefore, I am not a physical thing
This is paraphrased by one of Descartes critics, Antoine Arnauld- “I can doubt whether I have a body. Yet I cannot doubt that I am, or exist. Therefore I who am doubting and thinking am not a body. For, in that case in having doubts about my body I should be having doubts about myself”([1]). Arnauld then goes on to discredit this argument drawing parallels between this and the idea of a right- angled triangle. He says that a fact such as the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides can be doubted by someone who knows no better. This however, does not make the statement false. Descartes replies to the criticism in the Second meditations by saying that he did
Using the arguments from doubt, from clear and distinct perceptions, and from simplicity, Descartes attempts to prove in “The Meditations” that the mind (that is the soul or the “thinking thing”) is distinct and separate from the body (the extended, unthinking thing). This view is now known as Cartesian Dualism. In this essay I will outline Descartes’ main arguments, some of the criticisms of dualism, and my opinion as to which argument I perceive as the most convincing.
The first argument in Cartesian Dualism is the Argument from doubt. Descartes starts by concluding that although he can conceive the possibility that his perception of his own body could in fact be false, he cannot conceive the possibility that he is without a mind. This is because by the very act of doubting that he is a thinking thing, there must be something there in the first place to do the doubting. The next step Descartes takes is to propose that the mind and body are two separate and distinct entities, and his argument goes as follows:
I am certain that I am a thinking thing
I am not certain that I am a physical thing
Therefore, I am not a physical thing
This is paraphrased by one of Descartes critics, Antoine Arnauld- “I can doubt whether I have a body. Yet I cannot doubt that I am, or exist. Therefore I who am doubting and thinking am not a body. For, in that case in having doubts about my body I should be having doubts about myself”([1]). Arnauld then goes on to discredit this argument drawing parallels between this and the idea of a right- angled triangle. He says that a fact such as the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides can be doubted by someone who knows no better. This however, does not make the statement false. Descartes replies to the criticism in the Second meditations by saying that he did