Problem of Descartes’ Dualism
On philosophy of Descartes, substance is divided in to two things, mind and body. Mind-body dualism is natural and comprehensible. But there’s a philosophical consequential problem. By Descartes’ dualism, connection between mind and body is unclear and uncertain.
So Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz tried to solute the problem by monism.
Spinoza’s Monism
By Descartes, substance is independent thing. And there are two kinds of substance. But mind and body are interdependence things. Descartes’ dualism is a contradiction of definition.
Spinoza considered substance is one, the one is the God. Substance has independence is not affected by anything. So substance is not restricted by other things, and it’s infinite. Then it’s infinite, unlimited and eternal, so it must be the only one, it’s the God.
Substance is only one. For Spinoza, Descartes’ mind and body are one thing. Mind and body are different aspects of reflection of substance by different aspects of view.
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Related Posts and Pages
Note | Philosophy of René Descartes
Note | Philosophy of Georg Hegel