THAT RENÉ DESCARTES ORIGINATED THE MIND-BODY DISTINCTION

Author(s):  
Peter Harrison
Author(s):  
I.P. Brekotkina

The article discusses the main aspects of the paradigm of scientific thinking, which was created by Rene Descartes in the middle of the 17th century. The author focuses on the problem of metaphysical validity of the human mind, as well as the subject-object relations in the epistemological ideas of the French thinker. These questions are explored through the consideration of the “I”-God-nature triad, which is central to Descartes' philosophical concept. The idea of a created mind was for the philosopher the fundamental basis for obtaining reliable knowledge about the world and discoveries in the scientific field. Descartes defined the mind as an instrument of knowledge and paid great attention to the problem of controlling one's own thinking using the method he invented. The thought process becomes an object of observation and reflection on the part of the “I”. The article examines the relationship between freedom and necessity in Cartesian philosophy. One of the most important tasks set by Descartes is to free thinking from prejudice and build a new philosophy. The basic principle of the Cartesian philosophical system was total doubt. The act of doubt reveals the ability of thinking to manifest freedom. Free will is considered by Descartes as one of the registers of human thinking, through which the control of the thought process is carried out.


logical demonstrations as possibly fallacious, and waking thoughts as perhaps no better than dreams, he yet remained convinced of his own existence as a thinking, doubting being— je Pense, donc je suis . Thence, by a process of reasoning which has not escaped criticism, he infers the existence of God, Whose moral perfection then guarantees the validity of all propositions which the mind clearly and distinctly apprehends to be true. One such proposition is the existence of matter characterized only by extension in space and by the capacity for motion.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 151
Author(s):  
Sabiatul Hamdi ◽  
Muslimah Muslimah ◽  
Khabib Musthofa ◽  
Sardimi Sardimi

The main problem in this study is that there are many misunderstandings about philosophy that are considered to cloud the mind, so heavy, maybe even infidel. Especially in Western philosophy which became the forerunner of the existence of philosophy until now. Therefore, it is important to study more deeply about Western philosophy in order to gain a comprehensive understanding. This study aims to understand: (1) the history of the emergence and periodization of Western philosophy, (2) the characteristics of Western philosophy, and (3) the figures of Western philosophy and their thoughts. The method used in this study is a literature study with content analysis from various references relevant to the study of western philosophy. The results of this study show that: (1) the true philosophy began to be echoed when people began to ask about the origin of everything that exists in this universe, then the thought developed. Western philosophy became the beginning of the forerunner of the philosophers of philosophizing in Greece, starting from the ancient Greek centuries, classical centuries, medieval, to modern and today. (2) The prominent characteristics of western philosophy are that they are still influenced by mythology (ancient Greece), there are philosophers' thoughts that can only be obtained from testimonies/stories, and the way of philosophizing that is guided by the church. (3) Famous Western philosophers include Socrates, Thomas Aquinas and Rene Descartes. These three figures contributed to the world of science. AbstrakPermasalahan utama dalam kajian ini adalah banyaknya kesalahpahaman mengenai filsafat yang dianggap memperkeruh pikiran, begitu berat, bahkan mungkin dapat mengkafirkan. Terlebih pada filsafat Barat yang menjadi cikal bakal dari eksistensi filsafat hingga kini. Karena itu penting menelaah lebih dalam mengenai filsafat Barat agar memperoleh pemahaman yang komprehensif. Kajian ini bertujuan memahami tentang: (1) sejarah kemunculan dan periodisasi filsafat Barat, (2) karakteristik dari filsafat Barat, dan (3) tokoh filsafat Barat beserta pemikirannya. Metode yang digunakan dalam kajian ini adalah studi kepustakaan dengan analisis konten dari berbagai referensi-referensi yang relevan dengan kajian filsafat barat. Hasil dari kajian ini menunjukkan bahwa: (1) filsafat sejatinya mulai digemakan ketika orang-orang mulai menanyakan tentang asal dari segala sesuatu yang ada di alam semesta ini, kemudian berkembanglah pemikiran tersebut. Filsafat barat menjadi awal dari cikal bakal para filsuf berfilsafat di Yunani yang dimulai dari abad Yunani kuno, abad klasik, pertengahan, hingga modern dan saat ini. (2) Karakteristik filsafat barat yang menonjol di antaranya masih dipengaruhi oleh mitologi (Yunani kuno), ada pemikiran filsuf yang hanya didapat dari kesaksian/cerita belaka, dan cara berfilsafat yang dibimbing gereja. (3) Tokoh-tokoh filsafat Barat yang terkenal di antaranya Socrates, Thomas Aquinas dan Rene Descartes. Ketiga tokoh tersebut memberi sumbangsih bagi dunia ilmu pengetahuan


1986 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 55-56

René Descartes (1596–1650) was born at La Haye, near Tours in France. He entered the Jesuit School at La Flèche in 1606, where he studied Latin and Greek and the classical authors, and acquired respect for the certainty of mathematics and distaste for the theories of Aristotle as developed by medieval commentators. In 1616, he took a degree in law at the University of Poitiers. There followed a period during which he travelled, for some of the time as a gentleman-officer in the armies of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. In 1625 he returned to Paris and renewed his acquaintance with Father Marin Mersenne, who was later instrumental in making his views known to many of the famous intellectuals in Europe. From 1628 to 1649 he lived in Holland and worked out in detail the scientific, philosophical and mathematical ideas that had engaged him during his travels. His main philosophical works are Rules for the Direction of the Mind, written in 1629–30 but not published until 1684, Discourse on Method, 1637, Meditations, 1641, Principles of Philosophy, 1644, and The Passions of the Soul, 1649. In 1649, Descartes accepted an invitation to visit the Queen of Sweden and instruct her in philosophy. He succumbed to the rigorous climate, and died in February 1650.


Author(s):  
DOUGLAS HEDLEY

This chapter comments on John Cottingham’s chapter on Platonism in Rene Descartes’ cosmology, metaphysics, and moral theory. It explains the concept of implicit Platonism as consisting in certain Platonic or Neoplatonic notions, such as the notion of Ideas or Archetypes in the mind of God, and suggests that there is nothing Platonic in Descartes’ philosophy beyond such widely accepted ideas. It also questions Cottingham’s assumption that Platonism does not contain within itself the means of reconciling the controlling and contemplative mindsets.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-30
Author(s):  
Donald Cross ◽  

Traditionally, ‘René Descartes’ is synonymous with ‘method.’ The so-called father of modern science, he is perhaps the systematic and methodological philosopher par excellence, a fundamental motivation for his attempt to secede from contemporary thought being the possibility of establishing a universally valid method in the search for truth. In a passage in the Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Descartes contrasts his method with what he calls scholastic “[r]iddles,” verbal equivocations that hinder the acquisition of knowledge. In this paper I analyze this notion of riddling and the Cartesian method to posit that, finally, Descartes cannot avoid replicating the very riddles he criticizes, that his ‘revolutionary’ method only generates more riddles to be methodically solved. In short, Descartes’ method is dependent upon words but also calls for the effacement of the very words that constitute it. Words are both a methodological necessity and limitation; a double bind, there is no method without words, but, at the same time, there can be no method with words, that is, no methodo-logos. In its broadest formulation, Descartes must always at once say too much and too little.


1986 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 55-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Watling

René Descartes (1596–1650) was born at La Haye, near Tours in France. He entered the Jesuit School at La Flèche in 1606, where he studied Latin and Greek and the classical authors, and acquired respect for the certainty of mathematics and distaste for the theories of Aristotle as developed by medieval commentators. In 1616, he took a degree in law at the University of Poitiers. There followed a period during which he travelled, for some of the time as a gentleman-officer in the armies of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. In 1625 he returned to Paris and renewed his acquaintance with Father Marin Mersenne, who was later instrumental in making his views known to many of the famous intellectuals in Europe. From 1628 to 1649 he lived in Holland and worked out in detail the scientific, philosophical and mathematical ideas that had engaged him during his travels. His main philosophical works are Rules for the Direction of the Mind, written in 1629–30 but not published until 1684, Discourse on Method, 1637, Meditations, 1641, Principles of Philosophy, 1644, and The Passions of the Soul, 1649. In 1649, Descartes accepted an invitation to visit the Queen of Sweden and instruct her in philosophy. He succumbed to the rigorous climate, and died in February 1650.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-3 ◽  

The French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) argued that the natures of mind and body are completely different from one another and that each could exist by itself. How can these two structures with different natures causally interact in order to give rise to a human being with voluntary bodily motions and sensations? Even today, the problem of mind-body causal interaction remains a matter of debate.


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