for substance dualism Michael Lacewing enquiriesalevelphilosophycouk c Michael Lacewing Substance dualism Substance dualism there are two sorts of substance mind or soul and matter Minds are distinct from bodies ID: 647699
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Slide1
Descartes’ indivisibility argument for substance dualism
Michael Lacewingenquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk
(c) Michael LacewingSlide2
Substance dualism
Substance dualism: there are two sorts of substance, mind (or soul) and matterMinds are distinct from bodiesMinds are not properties of bodies
Mental properties are properties of a mental substance
Cartesian substance dualism: minds can exist independent of bodies
(c) Michael LacewingSlide3
Descartes’ indivisibility argument
The body is extended in space; it has (literal) parts.The mind has no (literal) parts.Leibniz’s law of the indiscernibility of identicals: If X and Y are the same thing, then they have the same properties
Therefore, if X and Y have different properties, they are not the same thing
Therefore, mind and body are different.Slide4
The mental is divisible
Mental illness and theories of the unconsciousness suggest that the mind does have ‘parts’Reply: bodies are spatially divisible, but minds are only functionally divisibleSlide5
Not everything physical is divisible
Is it always true to say that something physical has parts?Could the smallest physical things not be divided in principle, e.g. force fields?
But we can still talk of them having half the size
This depends on the best theory of space
If not all physical things are divisible, then the fact
that something, e.g.
the
mind,
isn’t divisible doesn’t show that it isn’t physicalSlide6
Are minds substances?
Suppose minds are not substancesSuppose there are only mental propertiesMinds are neither divisible nor indivisibleProperties aren’t divisible – only substances literally have parts
Descartes has assumed that the mind is a substance to show that it is an indivisible substance