Search results for "Mind–body problem"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
PASSIONATE DESCARTES: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE BODY'S ROLE IN CARTESIAN THOUGHT
2020
Abstract The usual reading of Descartes' “anthropological” perspective classifies it as a radical dualism with a distinction between two substances, mind and body, which experience major interaction difficulties. Through a contextualization of Descartes' physiological and psychological thought as well as through a less fragmented reading of his work, we intend to review this traditional interpretation, thereby showing its distorted character. When we pay attention to passion, a new Descartes’ image as a sort of phenomenal monism appears, which is markedly different from the legendary image typically associated with him, even today.
Descartes’ Notion of the Mind–Body Union and its Phenomenological Expositions
2018
The chapter clarifies the connections between Descartes’ discussion of the mind–body union and classical phenomenology of embodiment, as developed by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. It argues that the perplexing twofoldness of Descartes’ account of the mind–body union—interactionistic on the one hand, and holistic on the other—can be explicated and made coherent by phenomenological analyses of the two different attitudes that we can take toward human beings: the naturalistic and the personalistic. In the naturalistic attitude, the human being is understood as a two-layered psycho-physical complex, in which mental states and faculties are founded on the material basis of the body. In the personal…
Hume on the Phenomenological Discovery of the Self
1993
This paper presents a synthesis of my research into the problem of the self in Hume. The copious bibliography available on this topic indicates that the subject I suggest to discuss is problematic but also of crucial interest. I propose to develop the following argument, namely, that there exists in Hume a psychological awareness of the self. There is no incompatibility between the denial of personal identity in A Treatise of Human Nature Book I, and the arguments put forward in Book II Of the Passions, and in Book III, Of the Understanding of Morals. I shall maintain that Hume is not elaborating an ontological but a psychological theory of the self. This represents a new departure with reg…
The Gender of the Cartesian Mind, Body, and Mind-Body Union
2019
The chapter examines what we can know about gender from the perspective of the three primary notions introduced by Descartes in his correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia. The first section discusses how the primitive notion of the mind strengthens the idea that “the mind has no sex”, an idea that was further developed by the Cartesian and early feminist François Poulain de la Barre. The next section focuses on the notion of the body and analyses what Descartes has to say about gender in his anatomical writings. The little known posthumously published notes Primae cogitationes circa generationem animalium receive particular attention. Here Descartes assumes a difference between t…
Robotics Construction Kits: From “Objects to Think with” to “Objects to Think and to Emote with”
2018
This paper discusses new ideas about the use of educational robotics in social-emotional learning. In particular, educational robotics could be a tool intended to allow children to acquire some of the basic aspects of human emotions and emotional functioning, and to understand how these relate to the mind and body. More specifically, by using robots such as the LEGO Mindstorm construction kits—which allow users to both construct the body of the robot and to provide it with a behavioural repertory—children have the opportunity to visualize (and manipulate) the relationship between the robot’s body and mind. This allows them to simulate “embodied emotional minds” and to reflect on new neurosc…