Descartes Dualism

To begin with, this essay will look at both Descartes understanding of the mind and body and whether or not the reasons for the mind and body being distinct are plausible. It will look at the various arguments and understandings in defence of dualism as well as look at its flaws to then come to a conclusion on whether Descartes does in fact give good reasons for believing that the mind could exist without the body. Firstly, Descartes’ ‘method of doubt’ attempts to ‘defeat the sceptic’ in his beliefs that everything we experience is simply a false or inaccurate perception of the world around us. The sceptic would argue that often, we do not doubt what exists around us, we claim that we know some things to be certain through our five senses.
Smith and Jones describe that if your brain was taken hostage by a ‘mad scientist’ and ‘placed in a vat’ all whilst you were asleep, and was controlled by a ‘mega-computer’ yet you are experiencing everything that you were experiencing before your brain was taken out of your body, it would be impossible to determine whether you are truly experiencing what you believe you are, or are simply a ‘brain in a vat’. (Peter Smith & O.R. Jones, The Philosophy of Mind: an Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 1986, ch.3, pp.32-33). However, Descartes attempts to counter this argument using the ‘method of doubt’. He argues that we are able to doubt everything in existence, the world around us as well as our physical bodies, but we cannot doubt that we exist. The fact that we are doubting our own existence entails that we are thinking, and we cannot doubt that we are thinking, thus we must exist. (Peter Smith & O.R. Jones, The Philosophy of Mind: an Introduction,
However, a flaw can be found in the way in which Descartes presents his argument. Smith and Jones pose a similar argument to that of Descartes. The argument describes Margaret Thatcher waking up having forgotten who she is, she thinks she could be prime minister but is not certain. Using Descartes line of argument, she can doubt that she is prime minister, but she cannot doubt that she exists therefore her existence is separate from the the prime minister. The problem with this line of argument is that the conclusion is false and therefore is invalid. (Peter Smith & O.R. Jones, The Philosophy of Mind: an Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 1986, ch.3, p.40). This therefore undermines Descartes dualism and gives little credibility to the idea that the mind could exist without the