Jessica Zheng

Philosophy 204

1
Cartesian Dualism

French philosopher Rene Descartes, among many others, is a firm believer in Cartesian
Dualism. This paper aims to provide a definition to the term Cartesian Dualism, as well as an
extensive synopsis of Descartes argument in favor of it. A comprehensive analysis of the
argument provided by Descartes will be presented subsequent to the explanation of the topic at
hand and Descartes reasoning. The analysis provided aims to disassemble parts of Descartes
arguments for Cartesian Dualism as they are presented, and ultimately finds that while Descartes
does provide evidence for interaction between the dual components of man, the explanation
presented and his argument for the theory itself is lacking in stability.
Dualism is simply the belief that some entity can consist of two fundamentally different
components. Cartesian Dualism is a theory taking into account the idea of dualism, but
constructed specifically to deal with the dualist existence of man. It is the belief that man is made
up of two distinct components body and soul, otherwise known as matter and mind. The body,
or matter portion of man is the physical portion to which only physical properties can be
assigned. It consists of the physical body the arms and legs, the head, etc. the portion of man
carrying the property of extension. The soul, or mind portion, on the other hand is the
consciousness of man. It is the portion of man that thinks and remembers, the portion that does
not take physical form and can only be assigned mental properties.
In his Second Meditations, Descartes discovers from self-reflection that the mind must
necessarily exist, although this is not the case for the body. He begins by dismissing all ideas that
present even an ounce of doubt. He declares, Anything which admits the slightest doubt I will
set aside just as if I had found it to be wholly false (Descartes, p.16) After some introspective
examination, he concludes from this that the only remaining truth is that I am, I exist, is
necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind. (Descartes, p.16)
He argues that any possible state of mind that he can submerge himself in is proof that he exists,
at least as a thinking thing, regardless of whether or not he is being deceived by some greater
being. Descartes then presented the wax experiment, in which he watched as the properties
pertaining to a piece of honeycomb changed while he held it in his hands, all the while remaining
aware that it was still the same piece of wax. This led him to realize that something which
[he] thought [he] was seeing with [his] eyes [was] in fact grasped solely by the faculty of
judgment which is in [his] mind. (Descartes, p.21) This conclusion reinforced his belief that if

Jessica Zheng
Philosophy 204

his thoughts exist, assuming that they are his thoughts, he must exist at least as a mind, if as
nothing else. Furthermore, he concludes from this experiment that the mind is a much more
distinct entity than the body.
Descartes arguments for Cartesian Dualism are presented in his Sixth Meditations,
following his establishment that material objects may exist and therefore he may posses a body.
He makes this establishment by first distinguishing between imagination and intellect, realizing
that imagination requires a peculiar effort of mind which is not required for understanding
(Descartes, p.50) He argues that imagination may possibly require the existence of a body. He
provides further evidence for the existence of physical entities by ascertaining that he has
memory gained from sense perception. These memories are vivid and their initial presentation
are outside of his control. Descartes reflects on bodily sensations that he has felt and the idea that
anything he can imagine stems from some sort of sense perception he previously experienced.
He continues on to provide a series of doubts outlining why these material objects still may not
exist. He argues that sense perception can be illusory, that he could be dreaming, that there may
be some unknown faculty that constitutes him and generates these ideas within him. Ultimately,
he is still undecided as to whether or not the body exists.
Once Descartes has established that the mind definitely exists, while the existence of the
body is simply a possibility, he begins to present his arguments for Cartesian Dualism. He begins
by arguing that because his mind necessarily exists, while it may be true that his body does not,
they must be distinct entities. He argues, the fact that I can clearly and distinctly understand
one thing apart from another is enough to make me certain that the two things are distinct
(Descartes,

p.54)

This argument is weak, particularly taking into account Leibnizs Law. Leibnizs Law discusses
the idea that two identical things must possess identical properties. Descartes seems to be
following the guidelines of this law, contending that since the mind possesses the property of
existence, while the body does not, they are not identical. Existence, however, is not a true
property, proving this argument weak. He then uses the fact that a body is an extended thing
while he, as a thinking thing is not extended, to reinforce this conclusion. While this argument is
much more plausible than the first argument that he presented, it still does not provide substantial
evidence to support his conclusion. Here, he assumes that he has a complete grasp of the concept
of body and mind. While it may be true that minds only possess essential properties of thinking

Jessica Zheng
Philosophy 204

while bodies possess only essential properties of extension, it does not follow that [his]
essence consists solely in the fact that [he] is a thinking thing. (Descartes, p.54)
Descartes then continues on to argue that he may possibly exist without his imagination
or sense, but that imagination and sense cannot exist without a thinking thing to attribute it to.
Similarly, there are other faculties, such as changing position, which cannot be understood
apart from some substance for them to inhere in, and hence cannot exist without it. (Descartes,
p.54-55) After toying with this idea for some time, Descartes finds that he holds the power of
movement, concluding that this supports the idea that he may have an extended body. He
continues on arguing that Now there is in me a passive faculty of sensory perception
(Descartes, p.55) along with active faculty, either in me or in something else, which produced
or brought about these ideas. (Descartes, p.55) Descartes provides that these faculties cannot
exist within his mind because they do not require intellect and he cannot control their origination,
so the only alternative is that it is in another substance distinct from me a substance which
contains either formally or eminently all the reality which exists objectively in the ideas
produced

by

this

faculty

(as

have

just

noted).

(
Descartes, p.55) He decides that this other substance could only be either a physical, external
body or God. Since God is no deceiver and has provided him with evidence that material objects
exist, then surely, they must exist.
Once the existence of material objects has been established, Descartes must contemplate
whether or not they truly are as our senses present them to us. He begins by discussing his
personal mind and body relationship. Descartes finds that, I am not merely present in my body
as a sailor is present in a ship, but that I am very closely joined and, as it were, intermingled with
it, so that I and the body form a unit. (Descartes, p.56) This is proven by the sensations of pain,
hunger, and thirst he may feel from his body. Based on this idea, Descartes finds that senses
provide us simply with necessary information to maintain the welfare of our body in mind. He
states, the fact that some of the perceptions are agreeable to me while others are disagreeable
makes it quite certain that my body, or rather my whole self, in so far as I am a combination of
body and mind, can be affected by the various beneficial or harmful bodies which surround it.
(Descartes, p.56) These sensations themselves do not provide us knowledge of the true essence
of a foreign entity until the intellect becomes involved. This explanation by Descartes clearly

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Philosophy 204

outlines some form of interaction between the body and mind, however it confused it may be.
Nevertheless, Descartes is once again assuming that he has grasped a complete understanding of
sense perception and its translation to intellect. It may so be the case that there is no true
interaction between the physical and the mental, but the illusion of such an interaction could
simply have been a pre-established by God himself.