Posted by Alonso D. on September 02, 19103 at 04:53:50:

In Reply to: theory of the mind posted by amanda kelemen on September 10, 1998 at 18:20:40:

: I have just started this philosophy cl and i am completely lost. could anyone explain his theory of the mind to me?

Descartes said:
1. I know I have a body (I can see it, touch it)
2. I know I have a mind (because i can have thoughts and desires, like every human)
3. Then, humans are composites of two different substances: physical stuff (m that can be divisible and be extended in space) and spiritual stuff (a mind that is inmaterial for we know we cant divide our minds into the 'thoughts' section, the 'willing' section, etc.
4. Descartes made this theory up to try to respond to the question of our existence. He made the first step to the problematic of what are we made of (the self)
5. At the end, he finally realised that mind and body where not only substances of different properties (physical &nonphysical). But he added that they causally interact. This is, e.g: if I kick you (physical stimuli), you will get the feeling of pain (mind state) and shout like crazy (physical behaviour).
6. This interaction between 2 substances is what he called and became famous as Interactionist Dualism. Or in other words, Theory of the mind.
If you have any future enquiries just email me. I hope it helped.

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