Descartes Dualism

“I think, therefore I am.” This is one of the most famous statements by Descartes who believes that this is the one thing about which there is no doubt. This also leads to his assumption that free will is self-evident. If one is capable of doubting the existence of things learned through experience even when some of these may be true, then it is obvious that we have the freedom to disbelieve, thus free will. According to Descartes, the mind and body make up a human being. They are two distinct things, but they cannot be physically separated therefore they make a human being, he argues.
However, the mind is affected by the body. The soul is not a principle of life. The soul moves and feels in the body directly. The pineal gland allows the mind …show more content…
Consequently, there are at least two kinds of created substance—extended substances and thinking substances. By “extension” Descartes just means having length, breadth, and depth. We might say that to be extended is just to take up space or to have volume. Whereas by “thinking substance” Descartes just means “mind”. Although Descartes discusses these two attributes, he never explicitly rules out the possibility of other attributes. Nevertheless, this specification, is why Descartes was called a substance dualist. For example, take a particular rock. Among this rock’s properties are shape and size; but having these properties surmises the property of extension. In other words, something cannot have a shape or a size without also being extended. Furthermore, the properties that the rock may have are limited to modification of extension—a rock cannot have the property of experiencing pain for example, since the property of experiencing pain is not a way of being extended. In general, we can say that for Descartes, the attribute of a substance is its most general property, and that every other property of a substance is merely a specification of, way of being, or mode of that