Abstract According to Rene Descartes, Cartesian Dualism implies that human beings exist in two different forms. One being in form of matter, which refers to the physical being that can walk, talk and play; and the mind which is the non-physical being which is referred to as the spirit or soul; that is able to think, recall and doubt. He also proposes that matter performs its duty according to its own laws until the mind interferes, meaning the mind pulls the lever that allows the body to function daily. I agree and defend Descartes’ proposition; the human anatomy has a control center which is the brain and within the brain is the mind that perceives and conceives. The brain is the center where information is processed then turn into motion and action. Without our brain our body would not move. Patients in comas are in a still state and cannot move their body or function. This thesis statement won’t work, for three reasons. First, the prompt is quite clear that you can’t just agree with an author. You have to give your own argument. If you want to defend them, you have to defend them against a specific objection. Second, the claim that “the mind is in the brain” isn’t obviously Cartesian. On Descartes’s view, the mind isn’t “in” anything. Third, and probably most importantly, the argument should be about something reasonable people can disagree on. But claims like “the brain processes information” or “brains are essential to movement” are indisputable platitudes; it’s like arguing that the sky is blue. Separate point: the essay is likely to be more successful if you address not just Descartes’s conclusion, but also one of his arguments for it. Thesis Statement: 12/30 Preview of Argument: 25/45 Stage-setting: 10/15 Grammar: 9/10 56% - 30% late penalty = 26% Surname 2 John Ubom Surovell Phil 4370 Cartesian Dualism Introduction As stated by Descartes (1), dualism is a term used to refer to the existence of two fundamental categories of kinds of things in a given domain. Dualism is the direct opposite of monism which denotes the occurrence of a single category or kind of principle or thing. Pluralism on the other hand refers to the existence of many categories or kinds. Cartesian dualism is a concept advanced by Rene Descartes proposing that the mind or soul is totally different from the body. Rene regarded the mind as the non-extended thinking thing while the body was the extended non-thinking thing. The argument gave rise to the famous mind body-body dualism problem eliciting reaction from scholars such as Lowe, Elizabeth, Princess of Bohemia, and Richardson. This study therefore summarizes the argument as well as the objections to it. Cartesian Dualism, according to Descartes, implies that human beings exist in two different forms . He believed that one exists in the form of matter referring to the physical being that is able to walk, talk and play. Then, Rene states that there is another form known as the mind, which is the non-physic.

1. Abstract
According to Rene Descartes, Cartesian Dualism implies that
human beings exist in two different forms. One being in form of
matter, which refers to the physical being that can walk, talk
and play; and the mind which is the non-physical being which is
referred to as the spirit or soul; that is able to think, recall and
doubt. He also proposes that matter performs its duty according
to its own laws until the mind interferes, meaning the mind
pulls the lever that allows the body to function daily. I agree
and defend Descartes’ proposition; the human anatomy has a
control center which is the brain and within the brain is the
mind that perceives and conceives. The brain is the center
where information is processed then turn into motion and
action. Without our brain our body would not move. Patients in
comas are in a still state and cannot move their body or
function.
This thesis statement won’t work, for three reasons. First, the
prompt is quite clear that you can’t just agree with an author.
You have to give your own argument. If you want to defend
them, you have to defend them against a specific objection.
Second, the claim that “the mind is in the brain” isn’t obviously
Cartesian. On Descartes’s view, the mind isn’t “in” anything.
Third, and probably most importantly, the argument should be
about something reasonable people can disagree on. But claims
like “the brain processes information” or “brains are essential to
movement” are indisputable platitudes; it’s like arguing that the
sky is blue.
Separate point: the essay is likely to be more successful if you
address not just Descartes’s conclusion, but also one of his
arguments for it.
Thesis Statement: 12/30

2. Preview of Argument: 25/45
Stage-setting: 10/15
Grammar: 9/10
56%
- 30% late penalty
= 26%
Surname 2
John Ubom
Surovell
Phil 4370
Cartesian Dualism
Introduction
As stated by Descartes (1), dualism is a term used to refer to the
existence of two fundamental categories of kinds of things in a
given domain. Dualism is the direct opposite of monism which
denotes the occurrence of a single category or kind of principle
or thing. Pluralism on the other hand refers to the existence of
many categories or kinds. Cartesian dualism is a concept
advanced by Rene Descartes proposing that the mind or soul is
totally different from the body. Rene
regarded the mind as the non-extended thinking thing while the
body was the extended non-thinking thing. The argument gave
rise to the famous mind body-body dualism problem eliciting
reaction from scholars such as Lowe, Elizabeth, Princess of
Bohemia, and Richardson. This study therefore summarizes the
argument as well as the objections to it.
Cartesian Dualism, according to Descartes, implies that human
beings exist in two different forms
. He believed that one exists in the form of matter referring to
the physical being that is able to walk, talk and play. Then,
Rene states that there is another form known as the mind, which
is the non-physical being similar to the soul and has the ability
to think, recall, and doubt. Further, Rene indicated that matter

3. performed its duty according to its own laws until when the
mind interferes with it. As such, the human mind is simply
tasked with pulling the levers that allow the body to perform its
duty. The main contention therefore is how the non-physical
mind would react with the physical body. In her correspondence
with Rene, Elizabeth, Princess of Bohemia requested that he
explains how an immaterial substance could act on material
being (Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and René, 11). The
exchange reveals that she agrees with Rene’s idea of efficient
causation between the mind and the body but she also wishes to
revisit the theory.
On the contrary, Lowe proposed the non-Cartesian substance
dualism whereby he argues that the mind-body relationship is
one that takes place between two distinct substances which are
not necessarily separable. The proposal differs from Cartesian
dualism with regards to the category of modes of individual
substances or objects under consideration. In other words,
Cartesian dualism maintains that the subjects are immaterial and
non-physical in nature but non-Cartesian dualism does not insist
on such (Lowe, 49). On the same note, Richardson (20) argues
that it is a fair thing to object to the proposals of Cartesian
dualism simply because it makes the mind and body totally
diverse in nature. Richardson further states that since dualism
makes the mind immaterial and non-extended, it is
unintelligible to explain how it would act on a physical system
that is heterogeneous. Additionally, Richardson terms Rene’s
argument as a myth and states that the proponents of Cartesian
dualism are creating a link of transaction between the mind and
the body where no link can exist.
In conclusion, Rene Descartes brought forth the idea of mind-
body dualism and argued that the mind and the body were
separable and distinct from each other. Rene believed that the
mind was non-physical and non-extended whereas the body was
physical and extended. In a series of correspondence, Elizabeth
asked Rene to explain the nature of interaction between the two.
Nonetheless, she agreed with the idea of efficient causation

4. between the mind and the body. However, two scholars namely
Lowe and Richardson dismissed Rene’s claims stating that the
mind does not necessarily need to be immaterial to influence the
body. In addition, they fail to understand how immaterial
substance could act on a physical substance.
Works Cited
Descartes, Rene. ‘Meditation VI’, in Meditations on the First
Philosophy, J. Cottingham (trans.),
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996. Print.
Lowe, Jonathan. Non-Cartesian Substance Dualism. Erkenntnis,
65 (1): 5–23. 2006. Print.
Richardson, Robert. The ‘Scandal’ of Cartesian Interactionism.
Mind, Volume XCI, Issue 361, 1
January 1982, Pages 20–37. Print.
Elisabeth of Bohemia and Descartes, René. The Correspondence
between Princess
Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes, Lisa Shapiro (ed. and
transl.), Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. 2007. Print.
Lowe, Jonathan, ‘An Introduction to the philosophy of mind.
Mind, Bodies and People. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. 1996. Print
Descartes, Rene. ‘The ‘scandal’ of Cartesian Interactionism,
Mind (1982) Vol. xci, 20-37.
University of Cincinnati
�Generally refer to authors by their last names.
�The previous paragraph has a characterization of Cartesian
dualism; no need to re-state it, or to give a different
characterization.