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Single Idea 3613

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 1. Dualism ]

Full Idea

Whereas reason is a universal instrument which can serve on any kind of occasion, the organs of a machine need a disposition for each action; so it is impossible to have enough different organs in a machine to respond to all the occurrences of life.

Gist of Idea

Reason is universal in its responses, but a physical machine is constrained by its organs

Source

René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §5.57)

Book Ref

Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.74

A Reaction

How can Descartes know that reason is 'universal' rather than just 'very extensive'? Is there any information which cannot be encoded in a computer? It doesn't feel as if there any intrinsic restrictions to reason, but note Idea 4688.

Related Idea

Idea 4688 We imagine small and large objects scaled to the same size, suggesting a fixed capacity for imagination [Lavers]

The 22 ideas from 'A Discourse on Method'

3600 Slow and accurate thought makes the greatest progress [Descartes]
3601 Most things in human life seem vain and useless [Descartes]
1581 Greeks elevate virtues enormously, but never explain them [Descartes]
3602 Almost every daft idea has been expressed by some philosopher [Descartes]
3603 Methodical thinking is cautious, analytical, systematic, and panoramic [Descartes, by PG]
3604 When rebuilding a house, one needs alternative lodgings [Descartes]
3605 We can believe a thing without knowing we believe it [Descartes]
1583 In morals Descartes accepts the conventional, but rejects it in epistemology [Roochnik on Descartes]
3606 I was searching for reliable rock under the shifting sand [Descartes]
3608 I can deny my body and the world, but not my own existence [Descartes]
3607 In thinking everything else false, my own existence remains totally certain [Descartes]
3609 I am a thinking substance, which doesn't need a place or material support [Descartes]
3610 Truth is clear and distinct conception - of which it is hard to be sure [Descartes]
3611 Understanding, rather than imagination or senses, gives knowledge [Descartes]
3612 Clear and distinct conceptions are true because a perfect God exists [Descartes]
3614 A machine could speak in response to physical stimulus, but not hold a conversation [Descartes]
3613 Reason is universal in its responses, but a physical machine is constrained by its organs [Descartes]
3615 Little reason is needed to speak, so animals have no reason at all [Descartes]
3616 The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations [Descartes]
3617 I aim to find the principles and causes of everything, using the seeds within my mind [Descartes]
3618 Only experiments can settle disagreements between rival explanations [Descartes]
16686 God has established laws throughout nature, and implanted ideas of them within us [Descartes]