René Descartes Substance Dualism

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According to René Descartes, substance dualism is a dual particular kind of matter that has two kinds of properties. In this case, the two kinds of properties are mental properties and physical properties of human beings. The mental properties are the thoughts of an individual and the physical properties are the extension in space. Descartes explains that a person is not identical to a body; a person can exist without a body because it is not a body. Henceforth, Descartes claims that substance dualism is true. From this point of view, Descartes makes his claim that substance dualism is true in order to make clear what the new science really is about, to explain the new physics of the contemporary period, and to figure out the vitality of the …show more content…

This means that if Descartes’s premises are true, then the conclusion must necessarily be true. Descartes has two premises in order to explain how substance dualism comes to be true. Descartes uses the Principle of Identity to explain his first premise; Descartes’s first premise is that if I can exist without a body, then I am not a body. Hence, I can exist in a realm where I am not present without my body. Consequently, the second premise Descartes argues is that I can exist without a body because conceiving a characteristic I posses. Therefore, I am not a body and I can go into a spiritual realm without the characteristics of a body. Nevertheless, the mental substance can exist without a body because I can conceive that I exist without a body, and conceiving something makes something possible Descartes concludes that substance dualism is true because I can be present in the moment without a physical appearance. We have the ability to think and the ability to move and these two qualities define substance …show more content…

The reason is that conceiving something does not assure me that it becomes true, though it is just a possibility. Also, how can I tell if I am going out of my physical substance if I have never seen myself from outside the parameter of my physical form. I have never seen a reflection of myself in any spiritual form, yet I have to be certain that by conceiving I can exist without a body. How would I be able to possible exist without a body, if all my existence of life I have only seen myself with the characterization of a body. For example, how would I know certainly that I would be able to see in a spiritual form if the only way to see is by my physical eyes. Also, how can by conceiving make me certain that i would exist without a body, if conceiving that I exist without a body is only a possibility. Thus, I would not be the person I am without my physical reflection of who I am. I conceive because I think and conceiving makes thinking possible, though how would I not conceive without a physical brain in my head. It is possible that I can conceive from not having a body, but possibility does not certain me that i exist in the substance of mentality of me. Hence, substance dualism is not true because the argument of premise six for premise two is not

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