Single Idea 24027

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 8. Brain]

Full Idea

The motive power or the nerves themselves originate in the brain, which contains the imagination, which moves them in a thousand ways, as the common sense is moved by the external sense.

Gist of Idea

Nerves and movement originate in the brain, where imagination moves them

Source

René Descartes (Rules for the Direction of the Mind [1628], 12)

Book Reference

Descartes,René: 'Rules for the Direction of the Mind' [Newcomb Library 2023], p.36


A Reaction

This sounds a lot more physicalist than his later explicit dualism in Meditations. Even in that work the famous passage on the ship's pilot acknowledged tight integration of mind and brain.