Descartes's Dualism

Descartes's Dualism PDF

Author: Marleen ROZEMOND

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 0674042921

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Descartes, an acknowledged founder of modern philosophy, is identified particularly with mind-body dualism--the view that the mind is an incorporeal entity. But this view was not entirely original with Descartes, and in fact to a significant extent it was widely accepted by the Aristotelian scholastics who preceded him, although they entertained a different conception of the nature of mind, body, and the relationship between them. In her first book, Marleen Rozemond explicates Descartes's aim to provide a metaphysics that would accommodate mechanistic science and supplant scholasticism. Her approach includes discussion of central differences from and similarities to the scholastics and how these discriminations affected Descartes's defense of the incorporeity of the mind and the mechanistic conception of body. Confronting the question of how, in his view, mind and body are united, she examines his defense of this union on the basis of sensation. In the course of her argument, she focuses on a few of the scholastics to whom Descartes referred in his own writings: Thomas Aquinas, Francisco Suarez, Eustachius of St. Paul, and the Jesuits of Coimbra. This new systematic account of Descartes's dualism amply demonstrates why he still deserves serious study and respect for his extraordinary philosophical achievements.

The Immaterial Self

The Immaterial Self PDF

Author: John Foster

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-01-04

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1134731051

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Dualism argues that the mind is more than just the brain. It holds that there exists two very different realms, one mental and the other physical. Both are fundamental and one cannot be reduced to the other - there are minds and there is a physical world. This book examines and defends the most famous dualist account of the mind, the cartesian, which attributes the immaterial contents of the mind to an immaterial self. John Foster's new book exposes the inadequacies of the dominant materialist and reductionist accounts of the mind. In doing so he is in radical conflict with the current philosophical establishment. Ambitious and controversial, The Immaterial Self is the most powerful and effective defence of Cartesian dualism since Descartes' own

The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism

The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism PDF

Author: Jonathan J. Loose

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2018-05-01

Total Pages: 531

ISBN-13: 1119375266

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A groundbreaking collection of contemporary essays from leading international scholars that provides a balanced and expert account of the resurgent debate about substance dualism and its physicalist alternatives. Substance dualism has for some time been dismissed as an archaic and defeated position in philosophy of mind, but in recent years, the topic has experienced a resurgence of scholarly interest and has been restored to contemporary prominence by a growing minority of philosophers prepared to interrogate the core principles upon which past objections and misunderstandings rest. As the first book of its kind to bring together a collection of contemporary writing from top proponents and critics in a pro-contra format, The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism captures this ongoing dialogue and sets the stage for rigorous and lively discourse around dualist and physicalist accounts of human persons in philosophy. Chapters explore emergent, Thomistic, Cartesian, and other forms of substance dualism—broadly conceived—in dialogue with leading varieties of physicalism, including animalism, non-reductive physicalism, and constitution theory. Loose, Menuge, and Moreland pair essays from dualist advocates with astute criticism from physicalist opponents and vice versa, highlighting points of contrast for readers in thematic sections while showcasing today’s leading minds engaged in direct debate. Taken together, essays provide nuanced paths of introduction for students, and capture the imagination of professional philosophers looking to expand their understanding of the subject. Skillfully curated and in touch with contemporary science as well as analytic theology, The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism strikes a measured balanced between advocacy and criticism, and is a first-rate resource for researchers, scholars, and students of philosophy, theology, and neuroscience.

Descartes' Dualism

Descartes' Dualism PDF

Author: Gordon Baker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-08-18

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1134854242

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Was Descartes a Cartesian Dualist? In this controversial study, Gordon Baker and Katherine J. Morris argue that, despite the general consensus within philosophy, Descartes was neither a proponent of dualism nor guilty of the many crimes of which he has been accused by twentieth century philosophers. In lively and engaging prose, Baker and Morris present a radical revision of the ways in which Descartes' work has been interpreted. Descartes emerges with both his historical importance assured and his philosophical importance redeemed.

Descartes' Dualism

Descartes' Dualism PDF

Author: Gordon P. Baker

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9780415301046

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Contending against the prevailing view that Cartesian dualism is fundamental to understanding Descartes' philosophy, Baker and Morris present a controversial and academic, yet accessible examination of his doctrine.

Contemporary Dualism

Contemporary Dualism PDF

Author: Andrea Lavazza

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-03

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1136682406

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Ontological materialism, in its various forms, has become the orthodox view in contemporary philosophy of mind. This book provides a variety of defenses of mind-body dualism, and shows (explicitly or implicitly) that a thoroughgoing ontological materialism cannot be sustained. The contributions are intended to show that, at the very least, ontological dualism (as contrasted with a dualism that is merely linguistic or epistemic) constitutes a philosophically respectable alternative to the monistic views that currently dominate thought about the mind-body (or, perhaps more appropriately, person-body) relation.

Beyond Cartesian Dualism

Beyond Cartesian Dualism PDF

Author: Steve Alsop

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-02-15

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1402038089

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There is surprisingly little known about affect in science education. Despite periodic forays into monitoring students’ attitudes-toward-science, the effect of affect is too often overlooked. Beyond Cartesian Dualism gathers together contemporary theorizing in this axiomatic area. In fourteen chapters, senior scholars of international standing use their knowledge of the literature and empirical data to model the relationship between cognition and affect in science education. Their revealing discussions are grounded in a broad range of educational contexts including school classrooms, universities, science centres, travelling exhibits and refugee camps, and explore an array of far reaching questions. What is known about science teachers’ and students’ emotions? How do emotions mediate and moderate instruction? How might science education promote psychological resilience? How might educators engage affect as a way of challenging existing inequalities and practices? This book will be an invaluable resource for anybody interested in science education research and more generally in research on teaching, learning and affect. It offers educators and researchers a challenge, to recognize the mutually constitutive nature of cognition and affect.

The Promise of Dualism

The Promise of Dualism PDF

Author: Elizabeth Koppelman White

Publisher:

Published: 2015-10-09

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 9780957404434

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"The future is dualist" is the message of this book. It argues that the future progress of humanity depends on the dualist viewpoint being adopted that takes account of both sides of an argument and corrects imbalances created by the application of extreme points of view. Dualist theory concerns dualist or one-to-one interactions and how these can explain many phenomena in nature and in our society that are inadequately accounted for by the sciences. The theory is applicable to every aspect of our existence and is all-embracing in the sense of giving us an additional way of looking at everything around us. It is a new and different way of viewing the phenomena already explicated by the sciences in their various ways. Dualist theory concerns the way that dualist interactions can be used to explain change, complexity and innovation in the universe, including how these interactions give us an insight into ourselves and our society. A dualist interaction is a one-to-one relationship between existents which is harmonious over a period of time and which leads to differences being created. These differences are caused by the respective interactions. Perhaps the most obvious example is a male-female relationship in which offspring are produced. Dualist theory also addresses many of the flaws in human thinking that are currently causing problems throughout the world. It promises a better future if these flaws are overcome in the manner suggested in this book. The point is to show how reason can solve our problems. Our reasoning powers are not to be disparaged just because past ways of thinking are now failing us. We have the brains to solve our most pressing problems in the long term. It is a matter of improving our ways of thinking and this has always been the aim of philosophy, though it has lately been remiss in that regard. We must not allow past and present failures to make us despair of our future and resort to religion as the only way forward. The later Roman Empire took that path and it crippled civilisation by terminating intellectual progress. It took centuries to repair the damage caused, and even yet we are ignorant of much of the history, literature and achievements of the Roman Empire because so much was lost through religious bigotry. As things stand, an extreme religious mentality could easily prevail and make it a crime to be doubtful and uncertain of orthodox beliefs.

Knowledge, Thought, and the Case for Dualism

Knowledge, Thought, and the Case for Dualism PDF

Author: Richard Fumerton

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-10-17

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 110729262X

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The relationship between mind and matter, mental states and physical states, has occupied the attention of philosophers for thousands of years. Richard Fumerton's primary concern is the knowledge argument for dualism - an argument that proceeds from the idea that we can know truths about our existence and our mental states without knowing any truths about the physical world. This view has come under relentless criticism, but here Fumerton makes a powerful case for its rehabilitation, demonstrating clearly the importance of its interconnections with a wide range of other controversies within philosophy. Fumerton analyzes philosophical views about the nature of thought and the relation of those views to arguments for dualism, and investigates the connection between a traditional form of foundationalism about knowledge, and a foundationalist view about thought that underlies traditional arguments for dualism. His book will be of great interest to those studying epistemology and the philosophy of mind.

Beyond Conceptual Dualism

Beyond Conceptual Dualism PDF

Author: Giuseppe Vicari

Publisher: Rodopi

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9042024666

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This book is a systematic analysis of John R. Searle's philosophy of mind. Searle's view of mind, as a set of subjective and biologically embodied processes, can account for our being part of nature qua mindful beings. This model finds support in neuroscience and offers reliable solutions to the problems of consciousness, mental causation, and the self.