Substance Dualism
“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.”
Epistemology is study of the nature of knowledge and how humans have come to believe certain ideas as true. In the 17th century, French philosopher, Rene Descartes, proposed a revolutionary explanation of the notion that there is a separate, yet causal relationship between the mind and the body. Descartes created the school of philosophical thought known as substance dualism in which he methodologically elucidates his argument that there are only two fundamental entities in the world, that being mental and physical things. In his philosophical treatise, Meditations, Descartes challenges the Monist materialistic belief that the world is only composed of physical matter by inverting this preexisting conception through a reductionist approach. On his quest for knowledge and truth, he argues that the mind and the body dichotomy involves two separate substances that have the power to influence one another. Since the body exists in the physical, material world, it has the ability to influence the mind through experiences that are conceived by sensory perceptions. Through these sensory experiences and perceptions, the mind formulates beliefs and thoughts, whereby it influences the body to react and behave in certain ways through speech and action. While Descartes claims that there is a real distinction between the mind and the body, he also believes that the two interact in a causal relationship, where the mind is better known than the body.
In order to truly understand Descartes’ argument of substance dualism, it is important to understand the methodological, reductionist approach that he employs to build his theory. In the First Meditation, Descartes sets the basis for his ontological search for truth by rejecting all of his previous beliefs, experiences, and memories in order to begin from a clean, uninfluenced position. He says, “I have no senses. Body, shape, extension,
Epistemology is study of the nature of knowledge and how humans have come to believe certain ideas as true. In the 17th century, French philosopher, Rene Descartes, proposed a revolutionary explanation of the notion that there is a separate, yet causal relationship between the mind and the body. Descartes created the school of philosophical thought known as substance dualism in which he methodologically elucidates his argument that there are only two fundamental entities in the world, that being mental and physical things. In his philosophical treatise, Meditations, Descartes challenges the Monist materialistic belief that the world is only composed of physical matter by inverting this preexisting conception through a reductionist approach. On his quest for knowledge and truth, he argues that the mind and the body dichotomy involves two separate substances that have the power to influence one another. Since the body exists in the physical, material world, it has the ability to influence the mind through experiences that are conceived by sensory perceptions. Through these sensory experiences and perceptions, the mind formulates beliefs and thoughts, whereby it influences the body to react and behave in certain ways through speech and action. While Descartes claims that there is a real distinction between the mind and the body, he also believes that the two interact in a causal relationship, where the mind is better known than the body.
In order to truly understand Descartes’ argument of substance dualism, it is important to understand the methodological, reductionist approach that he employs to build his theory. In the First Meditation, Descartes sets the basis for his ontological search for truth by rejecting all of his previous beliefs, experiences, and memories in order to begin from a clean, uninfluenced position. He says, “I have no senses. Body, shape, extension,