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René Descartes

Re né De sca rtes
(1596 -16 50 )
• A major proponent in the scientific
revolution

MATHEMATICS
• Invented the Cartesian coordinates
MECHANICS, COSMOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY
• Furthered the advancement of these
sciences
PHILOSOPHY
• Dualism between body and soul
René Descartes
Du ali st M etap hy sics
• His view about man’s body and soul is
somehow the same as that of Plato’s
• The presence of an absolute distinction
between those who have incorporeal souls
and those who do not have
– Between all men and all animals (brutes)
• BRUTES – bodily machines having no rationality and
sensation
– Absolute distinction
• Supported by two tests proving that ONLY men are
rational soul
– USE OF LANGUAGE
– ALL-ROUND NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE
Animals have
no
intelligence
and
rationality as
that of man,
therefore
they are not
capable of
communicati
on through
which man is
understood.
Consci ou sn ess and Du alis m
• Our senses tend to deceive us, leading us
to imagine of different things
– since our senses tend to deceive us, we have
the tendency to imagine things
– the imagination of things, which may not
always be true, is a reaction to the action
made by the senses
• Everything that passes through the mind is
not truer than the illusions while dreaming
• The one who is thinking must be
something
– “I am thinking, therefore I exist.”
• First principle Descartes was seeking
Man has the
tendency to
misinterpret
the actions of
the senses,
thus resulting
to his
imagination of
things that may
or may not
exist in the real
world.
Consci ou sn ess and Du alis m
• Man is a substance and his essence (nature) is to
be conscious
– His being does not require place and does not depend
on any material object
• The rational soul is entirely different from the
material body
– The material object (body) and the formal object (soul)
are two different things and each is understood on an
idea different from that of the other
• Even if the body is absent, the soul remains to be
present as it is
– The soul does not cease to exist even if the material
object, which is the body, is not present
The soul and the
body are two
SOUL BODY
different things
and man’s being
does not depend
on any material
object (body). The
absence of the
body does not
affect the
existence of the
soul. The soul
continues to live
even if the body
is not there to
serve as the
Lan gu age an d Ration ality
• 2 means identifying the authentic
man
– Machines are unable to communicate
using words or other constructed signs
– Machines’ actions are not caused by
their knowledge but by the disposition of
their organs
• ORGANS – in need of special arrangement
for each special action
– Impossible for machines to act to different
circumstances of life because ONLY reason, that
is only present in man, allows us to do such
Lan gu age an d Ration ality
• Man can make use of words by arranging
them to form a sentence to express their
thought and be understood.
– No brute (animal) can do such not because
they lack organs (e.g. parrots, magpies)
– They can talk but they are unaware of what
they say
• Brutes come up with signs to be
understood by those who are with them
and by those who have the chance to
learn their language
• A very small amount of reason is needed
in order to talk and express ideas
Man is created with the
capability to speak and
communicate with the
rest of his species. Only
species like him is being
gifted with the
intelligence to arrange
words and compose a
sentence that may
express his ideas and
emotions. Animals and
machines, on the other
hand, does not posses
the reason and
intelligence in order to
speak. Although in some
cases, like those pf the
parrots, they only
imitate what they hear
but they do not have the
Lan gu age an d Ration ality
• It is inappropriate to compare a brute and a man
because each is a different human organism
created with distinct faculties and senses
– Each has a whole different nature from the other and
should not be compared and weighed against
• Natural movements (expressions of emotions)
can be imitated by machines and by brutes and
should not be misunderstood
• Man must not think that brutes can talk, only that
we do not understand them, because reason is
required in order to do such
• Nature – that which acts in animals with
accordance to the arrangements of their organs
Man and animals are not ought to be
compared because each is being created
entirely different from the other.
THE RATIONAL
SOUL
… cannot be extracted from the
potentiality of matter.
The soul cannot be measured in
terms of the capacity of the
material object.
The soul is specially created
and it is not enough that it
resides in a human body.
To have
feelings and
appetite,
the soul and
the body
must be
united more
closely.
When the material
object dies, the soul
does not die with it.
There are no causes by
which the soul can be
destroyed, therefore it is
IMMORTAL.

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