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Rethinking Descartes's Substance Dualism

Rethinking Descartes's Substance Dualism

Hardcover

Series: Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, Book 29

Philosophy

ISBN10: 3030754138
ISBN13: 9783030754136
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: Sep 2 2021
Pages: 152
Weight: 0.91
Height: 0.44 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

This monograph presents an interpretation of Descartes's dualism, which differs from the standard reading called 'classical separatist dualism' claiming that the mind can exist without the body. It argues that, contrary to what it is commonly claimed, Descartes's texts suggest an emergent creationist substance dualism, according to which the mind is a nonphysical substance (created and maintained by God), which cannot begin to think without a well-disposed body. According to this interpretation, God's laws of nature endow each human body with the power to be united to an immaterial soul. While the soul does not directly come from the body, the mind can be said to emerge from the body in the sense that it cannot be created by God independently from the body. The divine creation of a human mind requires a well-disposed body, a physical categorical basis. This kind of emergentism is consistent with creationism and does not necessarily entail that the mind cannot survive the body.

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Philosophy