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WorksheetsMind, Body and Soul - Descartes
Total questions: 11
Worksheet time: 6mins
At what time was Descartes writing?
17th century
16th century
15th century
18th century
What was Descartes aiming to do?
find the answer to all the big questions in life
to find the same certainty in philosophy that he found in maths
to disprove the Aristotelean thesis of materialism
In which book did Descartes write about the soul and 'hyperbolic doubt'?
Le Monde
Meditations
Discourse
Phaedo
What is cartesian scepticism?
the method of doubting everything you know - and find what you know you can be certain of
the latin for "i think, therefore I am"
What were Descartes three waves of doubt?
Senses and illusions: we can be tricked by our senses
Dreaming: is this all simply all a dream?
An Evil Demon: a demon who has the power to deceive us - his point with this is that we can never be 100% sure
All of the above
Following the three waves of doubt, what did Descartes conclude?
hyperbolic doubt
cartesian scepticism
cogito ergo sum
provatio boni
Why does 'Cogito Ergo Sum' support dualism?
we can be certain that we have a mind - as we think, but we cannot be certain we have a body - therefore the two things must be separate
because he was a mathematician who was looking for the same certainty yin mathematics that he found in philosophy, and cogito ergo sum means he found that
What is the key problem with Descartes theory?
why can't the mind and the body be part of the same thing - just as Aristotle suggested
if the mind and the body are separate substances, how do they interact?
How does Descartes answer how the mind an body interact?
He doesn't - this is why it is the biggest issue in his argument, because he provides no reason how the two interact, so we cannot take the argument as fact
he suggests it is through the pineal gland in the brain - however science has since proven that the pineal gland produces sleep hormones
How does Leibniz support Descartes?
he gives the analogy of the university, that we make a category error when we assume that their should be two separate things, the two all together make the thing
he argues that the mind has the properties of personality and emotions, whilst the body has physical properties (arms etc.) - we cannot argue they are one thing when they have such different properties
What does Gilbert Ryle say Descartes' theory is?
a big mistake
a category error
a categorical leap
infinite regression
