A dualism.

Descartes had invented representation but came to think of things things in the world to be divided into representeds (things) and representings (ideas).

Complaint about Cartesian dualism

  • If you’re committed to “mind stuff” being non-extended,
  • and to the physical world being extended,
  • (throw in some general claims about causation, e.g. it occurs in a place),
  • then perception and agency become unintelligble.
    • How is the mind affected by real stuff / how can the mind cause something?

Cartesian minds as socially constructed

This is the thesis of Incorrigibility as the Mark of the Mental. Cartesian minds are something that we created because we started to treat each other a certain way.

The mind-body problem was a modern invention - the ancients did not struggle with it because they did not make Descartes’ move of assimmilating “impressions” and “thoughts” both as “ideas”.

External resources