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Single Idea 3151

[from 'Meditations' by René Descartes, in 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 5. Qualia / a. Nature of qualia ]

Full Idea

Descartes confined his dualism to problems of reason and language. Sensation and even imagination seemed to him physically unproblematic. Nowadays it is the reverse: thinking seems easy - but feeling?

Gist of Idea

Descartes put thought at the centre of the mind problem, but we put sensation

Source

comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], 2) by Georges Rey - Contemporary Philosophy of Mind 2 n16

Book Reference

Rey,Georges: 'Contemporary Philosophy of Mind' [Blackwell 1997], p.67


A Reaction

Thinking only 'seems easy' if it can be done without consciousness, and that is beginning to look like a dubious assumption. The most interesting and promising area is the borderline between a chess-playing machine and a human chess player.