RS CLINIC

essay: "Descartes offers a coherent solution to the Mind/Soul and Body Problem." Discuss

• you need to focus primarily on Descartes for the whole essay

• at the end of every paragraph come back to the 2 words: “coherent solution” « to what extent?

  • ‘partially coherent?’

  • ‘partially solved?’

• main ao1 points needed:

  • Descartes is a substance dualist (mind n body are 2 distinct substances, with separate properties)

  • in his Meditations, Descartes concluded his argument on mind/body/soul as “cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am)

    • use examples/analogies

  • Descartes used the process of hyperbolic doubt to prove this

    • use examples/analogies

  • Descartes’ proposition was that the human soul is located in the pineal gland

• ao2:

  • yes it is a coherent solution

    • Plato = the founding father of dualism

      • Theory of Forms

    • Christian Scholars likely to agree with the notion of an immortal soul, surviving the mortal

    • Michael Tooley » property dualist

      • not all mental events can be reduced to physical states

      • he would argue that Plato is partially coherent and partially solves the problem

  • no, it is not a coherent solution

    • materialists would point to scientific evidence such as patients who have suffered serious brain injuries

      • many of whom suffer permanent changes to their personality, suggesting that the physical n mental properties are fully independent eg James Cracknell

    • modern science can completely discredit anything that Descartes said about the pineal gland