Descartes Substance Dualism Essay

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Philosopher Rene Descartes explains in his theory of substance dualism that a person’s body and mind are equally real but distinct substances. According to Descartes in Perry et al. (2015), the body exists in a physical state because it extends through space and is unconscious (p.177). On the contrary, the mind is in a mental state because it has the property of consciousness and intentionality (p.177). Descartes insists that the mind connects strongly with the body that the two different substances just appear as a singular entity when they interact (p.177-178). Consequently, Descartes uses the difference in consciousness to assert that the mind and body are vastly different on a substantial level.
Descartes justifies the separation of the mind and body based on the mental state’s exclusive properties. According to the conceivability argument, the mind can exist without the body because it contains the defining characteristic that makes a person distinguishable (Descartes in Perry et al., 2015, p.160). The divisibility argument also states a distinction because the mind performs actions as one whole while the body’s appendages are physically separate (p.179). According to Leibniz’s Law of indiscernibles, substance X is only identical to substance Y if all …show more content…
Under the assumption that the theory is correct, the mind is an immaterial substance while the body is composed of matter (Perry et al., 2015, p.261). Physical objects cannot interact with non-extending substances, so the mind should be unable to coordinate with the physical body (p.262). This is a problem because dualism states that a casual relationship occurs with the mind and body despite being in different states (p.262). As a result, various philosophers have attempted to provide an alternate theory in order to address the issues and better explain the interaction that

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