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Single Idea 3616
[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 2. Interactionism
]
Full Idea
It is not sufficient that the reasonable soul should be lodged in the body like a pilot in a ship, unless perhaps to move its limbs, but it needs to be united more closely with the body in order to have sensations and appetites, and so be a true man.
Gist of Idea
The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations
Source
René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §5.59)
Book Ref
Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.76
A Reaction
The idea that the pineal gland is the link suggests that Descartes has the 'pilot' view, but this idea shows that he believes in very close and complex interaction between mind and body. But how can a mind 'have' appetites if it has no physical needs?
Related Idea
Idea 24039
All the emotions seem to involve the body, simultaneously with the feeling [Aristotle]
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]
|
3607
|
In thinking everything else false, my own existence remains totally certain
[Descartes]
|
3608
|
I can deny my body and the world, but not my own existence
[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]
|