Philosophy

Arguments about Self, Mind & Body

Introduction

In the Fourth Set of objections and replies, one of Arnuald's arguments against Descartes is that Descartes fails to establish that our knowledge of the mind is good enough to say that minds and bodies are distinct. Descartes responds by arguing that our knowledge is good enough to distinguish what is necessary for understanding minds and what is not necessary. Peter Strawson has something to say about this. This essay attempts to elucidate Arnauld's argument and Descartes's response. Moreover, this essay also seeks to summarize Strawson's argument and whether or not Descartes's argument is strong enough to rebut Strawson's argument.

Discussion

Arnauld was among one of the authors of the Objections to Meditations of Descartes. In the Fourth Objections, Arnauld objected include several objections that are of key significance, both philosophically and as they assist Descartes in further articulation of his own positions. Arnauld's first objection to Descartes relates the first argument in the Sixth Meditation for the assertion that the body and the mind are, in fact, distinct. For the body and mind to be really distinct is for the mind to be able to exist without the body and for the body to be able to exist without the mind.

In 1641, Rene Descartes argued that the mind was an immaterial substance. Descartes was the foremost to relate the mind to consciousness clearly, and to make its distinction from the brain, which according to him, is the support of the intelligence. He proposed a thesis called “mind-body dualism” that mind and body are, in fact, distinct. Thus, the body / mind problem (how it is presented these days) was initially formulated by him. Descartes dualistic solution is built around the separation of two substances: mind and body. It is then explained how the interaction between the two is possible. The interaction of mind and body is problematic. To demonstrate that the mind and body are separate substances, Descartes used a thought experiment in which he supported the idea that each substance can be clearly and distinctly conceived as entities capable of existing independently of another. He argued that the nature of the mind (that is, a non-extended, thinking thing) is entirely dissimilar from that of the body (i.e., a non-thinking, extended thing), and thus existence of one without the other is possible. The mind is a thinking thing that, without the dependence of its extended body, can exist. And therefore, distinct from the body, the mind is a substance- a substance whose essence is thought.

The Cartesian dualism's central claim is that the the material body and intangible mind causally interact, a concept that continues to emerge in many non-European philosophies in a special way. Mental events cause physical events and vice versa. Descartes held that between these two quite distinct types of substances, there is two way causal interaction. So, the mind is affected by the body in perception, and the body is affected by the mind in action.

Descartes theory was challenged by Arnauld using ...