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Paper 2 (Descartes's Dualism) PHLA10 - Reason and Truth
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An A- grade essay on the theory of Descartes's Dualism. The essay proposes claims and counter claim in regards to the theory. Citations are included for further reference. Please email if remarks on the essay are needed!

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  • February 2, 2022
  • 3
  • 2021/2022
  • Essay
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Descartes's Dualism.

The mind is the source of our knowledge and the world around us is what we know about, our reality.
Conceptualizing the relationship between mind and body / mental and physical is something one has
always argued over. Philosophers have theories on the existence and the interrelation between the
mental and physical sates of our being. One of these theories is the mind body dualism by Descartes. [1]
This theory described the human mind is not physical, hence the mind and body are two distinct things:
creating a mental world and a physical world. He believed the mind has qualities that are not parallel to
the physical world. The body is an extended and materialistic object whereas the mind is a spiritual soul
like object completely different from the principles of the body. [2] Through the course of this essay, I will
be analyzing the arguments for Descartes’s Dualism (In section one I will examining the argument of
doubt, in section two I will be evaluating the argument of spatial properties, in section three I will be
assessing the argument of existence of mind without the body and in section four I will be presenting my
overall analysis of the arguments.)

Section 1:

To understand the form of the claim presented by Descartes we must understand Leibniz’s law. Leibniz’s
law says if X = Y then any property of X is a property of Y and vise versa. [1] It is basically stating is the
properties of X do not equate with Y, then X and Y aren’t the same.

Descartes argument was that the existence of the body can be doubted but the existence of the mind
can’t be doubted; the doubt itself proves that the mind exists. Therefore, the mind and body are two
distinct identities. The body lacks the property of ‘cannot be doubted’ hence isn’t the same as mind
(Leibniz’s law).[1] In my view the argument is not sound nor valid. The claim replies on doubt of a person
as a property instead of actual properties of the being. For example, I can doubt if the Pythagoras
theorem is right but my doubt doesn’t actually make it false or wrong. [3] Just like that doubting the
existence of the body does not actually mean that the body doesn’t exist. I believe doubt cannot be
treated as a property to compare two things. Thus, the argument that the existence of the body can be
doubted but the existence of the mind can, doesn’t not reveal a property that differentiates the mind
from the body.

Section 2:

The second argument is the argument from spatial properties. Descartes argue that the body has spatial
properties whereas the mind doesn’t, therefore the mind and body are distinct. The form of the
argument is based on Leibniz’s law.[1] Although today we know that our brain is divided into section,
almost falsifying this argument but Descartes connoted mind to the aspect of ‘pure thinking’ not the
physical brain. He believed that the ‘thinking thing’ is untouchable by something physical, leading to the
claim that the soul must continue to think even when the body is in deep sleep; “Thus, methinks, every
drowsy Nod shakes their Doctrine, who teach that the soul is always thinking. Those, at least, who do at

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