Rene Descartes

Descartes began with the now well-known proposition, "I think, therefore I am," and from this he built a philosophical structure striving for a degree of mathematical certainty. In these two excerpts, though, he shows that the fact that he thinks does not explain the source of that thought, the meaning of being human, and the nature of the soul that human thought also presupposes. He begins in his letter to Regius by stating that the human being is made up of body and soul, and he sees these as existing in a true substantial union. The human being is thus not a body with a soul attached, but rather an entity consisting of a necessary body and soul. To lose one, then, is to be no longer human. For Descartes, death thus leads

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problem is then construed as being to justify the belief that certain bodies are in fact associated with minds. Long says that it is therefore initially an open question whether or not there are other entities to which psychological states can be intelligibly ascribed besides ourselves. Descartes begins with this point of view as he states, "I think, therefore I am." He considers first his own psychology and ultimately develops the belief that there is a reality outside his own mind because it exists in the mind of God. Long is more interested in the issue of where the mind resides, and he approaches the question by asking for a definition of "body" that will serve to answer the other question as well, and that will serve to indicate the possible meaning of "other minds." Long seems to accept that we know our own mind exists because we think, just as Descartes stated. Still, this does not mean that we know where the mind resides, and this issue occupied Descartes as well and produced the distinctions noted in the letters he wrote to Regius and Elizabeth. Long asks what a body is and finds that many people define the body in terms of its being a person or a aspect of a person, yet Long wishes to provide a definition that do
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Approximate Word count = 1715
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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