Table of Contents
- 1 What does Descartes mean about the powers of the mind?
- 2 How does Rene Descartes explain his idea about self?
- 3 What do you think is Descartes argument for the real distinction between mind and body?
- 4 What is reality according to Descartes?
- 5 What is substance according to Descartes?
- 6 What is mind does it really interact with the body?
What does Descartes mean about the powers of the mind?
On the one hand, Descartes argues that the mind is indivisible because he cannot perceive himself as having any parts. On the other hand, the body is divisible because he cannot think of a body except as having parts. Hence, if mind and body had the same nature, it would be a nature both with and without parts.
How does Rene Descartes explain his idea about self?
In the Meditations and related texts from the early 1640s, Descartes argues that the self can be correctly considered as either a mind or a human being, and that the self’s properties vary accordingly. For example, the self is simple considered as a mind, whereas the self is composite considered as a human being.
How does Descartes prove the dualism of substance?
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 is Descartes explanation of how mind and body interact Is it plausible?
We noted above that Descartes thought that minds could cause effects in bodies, and vice versa. So, despite thinking that minds and bodies are different sorts of things, Descartes thought that minds and bodies could interact. For this reason, his view is sometimes called interactionist dualism.
What do you think is Descartes argument for the real distinction between mind and body?
After proposing that all people are thinking things and not physical things, Descartes goes on to argue that the mind is not only separate from the body, but can also live without it. The train of thought follows that if two things can exist apart from one another, then they must be two distinct and separate things.
What is reality according to Descartes?
Descartes applies objective reality only to ideas and does not say whether other representational entities, such as paintings, have objective reality. The amount of objective reality an idea has is determined solely on the basis of the amount of formal reality contained in the thing being represented.
What is a human being according to Descartes?
According to Descartes, a human being is a union of mind and body, two radically dissimilar substances that interact in the pineal gland. He argued that each action on a person’s sense organs causes subtle matter to move through tubular nerves to the pineal gland, causing it to vibrate distinctively.
Who am I according to Descartes?
In his Meditations, René Descartes asks, “what am I?” His initial answer is “a man.” But he soon discards it: “But what is a man? Shall I say ‘a rational animal’?
What is substance according to 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. There is no such thing as a substance without its principal attribute. Body cannot exist without extension, and mind cannot exist without thought.
What is mind does it really interact with the body?
Descartes argued that the mind interacts with the body at the pineal gland. This form of dualism or duality proposes that the mind controls the body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational mind, such as when people act out of passion.