Descartes and the Mind-Body Problem

• René Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician who more than any other person was responsible for the demise of the intellectual assumptions that characterised the Middle Ages.
• He doubted all knowledge except his own existance, and this is often seen as heralding a new age of reason.
• The importance of Descartes in the development of psychology lies largely with his attempt to resolve the mind-body problem.
• Descartes believed that mind and body are two entirely different things (a theory known as dualism), with the body composed of physical matter, and the mind or soul being non-physical and independent of the material world.
• A problem with this position, however, lies in trying to explain how the non-material mind can control the physical or mechanical workings of the body.
• In his attempt to provide an answer, Descartes proposed that mind and body interacted in the pineal gland.
• Descartes also realised that a great deal of behaviour was mechanical and did not require mental intervention.
• This led Descartes to speculate that the human body might work according to similar principles.

Explore the life and ideas of René Descartes, the influential French philosopher and mathematician whose thoughts on the mind-body problem helped shape modern philosophy and psychology. Delve into his theory of dualism, the pineal gland as the seat of interaction between mind and body, and his views on mechanical behavior in the human body.