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Single Idea 4305
[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 8. Dualism of Mind Critique
]
Full Idea
Descartes gives no clear criterion for individuating mental substances.
Gist of Idea
Descartes gives no clear criterion for individuating mental substances
Source
comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §6.78) by John Cottingham - The Rationalists p.86
Book Ref
Cottingham,John: 'The Rationalists' [OUP 1988], p.86
A Reaction
Presumably I can individuate my own mind by the 'natural light' of reason, and the implications of the Cogito. The minds of others do seem to be a problem. Why should they coincide with bodies, and not overlap or blend or swap?
The
32 ideas
with the same theme
[view that dualism is impossible or incorrect]:
2170
|
Homer does not distinguish between soul and body
[Homer, by Williams,B]
|
24049
|
Thinkers place the soul within the body, but never explain how they are attached
[Aristotle]
|
1514
|
Early thinkers concentrate on the soul but ignore the body, as if it didn't matter what body received the soul
[Aristotle]
|
24050
|
If soul is separate from body, why does it die when the body dies?
[Aristotle]
|
21402
|
Incorporeal substances can't do anything, and can't be acted upon either
[Zeno of Citium, by Cicero]
|
6028
|
Bodies interact with other bodies, and cuts cause pain, and shame causes blushing, so the soul is a body
[Cleanthes, by Nemesius]
|
2628
|
Why would mind mix with matter if it didn't need it?
[Cicero]
|
3625
|
The 'thinking thing' may be the physical basis of the mind
[Hobbes on Descartes]
|
2552
|
Knowing different aspects of brain/mind doesn't make them different
[Rorty on Descartes]
|
4305
|
Descartes gives no clear criterion for individuating mental substances
[Cottingham on Descartes]
|
4861
|
Does Descartes have a clear conception of how mind unites with body?
[Spinoza on Descartes]
|
6540
|
Even Descartes may concede that mental supervenes on neuroanatomical
[Lycan on Descartes]
|
7733
|
Superman's strength is indubitable, Clark Kent's is doubtful, so they are not the same?
[Maslin on Descartes]
|
23222
|
A soul with physical extension is more likely than an immaterial soul that moves bodies
[Elizabeth]
|
4308
|
Mind and body are one thing, seen sometimes as thought and sometimes as extension
[Spinoza]
|
4846
|
We are incapable of formulating an idea which excludes the existence of our body
[Spinoza]
|
7840
|
For all we know, an omnipotent being might have enabled material beings to think
[Locke]
|
7645
|
When falling asleep, the soul becomes paralysed and weak, just like the body
[La Mettrie]
|
5589
|
Neither materialism nor spiritualism can reveal the separate existence of the soul
[Kant]
|
5630
|
Our concept of an incorporeal nature is merely negative
[Kant]
|
19596
|
The whole body is involved in the formation of thoughts
[Novalis]
|
14867
|
It is just madness to think that the mind is supernatural (or even divine!)
[Nietzsche]
|
5171
|
The supposed 'gulf' between mind and matter is based on the senseless concept of 'substances'
[Ayer]
|
3359
|
Cartesian dualism fails because it can't explain mental causation
[Kim]
|
7365
|
Dualism wallows in mystery, and to accept it is to give up
[Dennett]
|
3513
|
How does a dualist mind represent, exist outside space, and be transparent to itself?
[Papineau]
|
4982
|
Dualism implies some brain events with no physical cause, and others with no physical effect
[Kirk,R]
|
2955
|
If mental events occur in time, then relativity says they are in space
[Lockwood]
|
5343
|
People largely came to believe in dualism because it made human agents free
[Flanagan]
|
6527
|
If energy in the brain disappears into thin air, this breaches physical conservation laws
[Lycan]
|
6528
|
In lower animals, psychology is continuous with chemistry, and humans are continuous with animals
[Lycan]
|
4912
|
Out-of-body experiences may be due to temporary loss of proprioception
[Carter,R]
|