Mind and body (dualism)
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Question
Descartes' dualism?
Answer
Mind and body are two really distinct kinds of thing: the mind thinks, the body is extended.
Question
Res cogitans?
Answer
The mind — a thinking, unextended thing (it doesn't take up space).
Question
Res extensa?
Answer
The body — an extended, physical thing (it takes up space but doesn't think).
Question
The wax argument?
Answer
Heat the wax and every sensed quality changes, yet you judge it's the same wax — so the mind, not the senses, grasps what it is.
Question
What does the wax argument conclude?
Answer
The mind grasps what things truly are, and so is even better known than the body.
Question
The 'really distinct' argument?
Answer
I can clearly conceive mind without body and body without mind, so God could make them exist apart — they're two things.
Question
The weak spot in 'really distinct' (Go further)?
Answer
Being able to CONCEIVE them apart may only show they seem separable, not that they really are (Arnauld's worry).
Question
Mind vs body for Descartes?
Answer
You HAVE a body (extended) but you ARE a mind (thinking) — the mind is what you essentially are.
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Topic 10.3 hub
Meditations on First Philosophy — Descartes
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