René Descartes

Descartes defines human existence through the separation of mind and body, emphasizing the certainty of the self with his maxim, "I think, therefore I am." He argues that while we can be sure of our...

Descartes' view on the mind-body relationship, known as Cartesian dualism, posits that the mind and body are separate entities that interact. He argues that the mind is immaterial and distinct from...

Descartes argued that we can never know the mind of another person because your understanding is limited to your own mind. Since our knowledge is so limited, we cannot even be sure that other people...

Descartes' phrase "je pense donc je suis," meaning "I think, therefore I am," asserts that the act of thinking is proof of one's existence. Published in 1637 in Discourse on the Method, this concept...

Descartes imagines an evil genius deceiving him to explore the certainty of knowledge. This thought experiment suggests that if an evil genius can deceive him about the reality of the world, it...

René Descartes's philosophy on knowledge, outlined in his Meditations, involves radical skepticism. He argues that anything doubt can touch cannot be considered true knowledge, except the certainty...

Descartes uses the notion of divisibility to explain that things that are divisible can be broken down into smaller parts. He perceives that the body can be divided into parts. However, the mind...

Descartes sought to prove God's existence in his work to establish a new philosophical system grounded in mathematical principles, akin to Euclidean geometry. He aimed to apply a logical, axiomatic...

Descartes's theory of substances posits that a substance is something that exists independently, relying on nothing else. He identifies God as the only truly independent substance. Other entities,...

Descartes's use of skepticism was, in part, shaped by the intellectual upheaval created by the Scientific Revolution. In a time when so many traditional assumptions and understandings were being...

According to the Cartesian theory of substance dualism, there are two substances, mind and body. For Descartes, thought constitutes the nature of the mind, whereas extension constitutes the nature of...

The answer to this question is the same as the first: A) The faculty of imagination can create sensations that are indistinguishable from real ones. Therefore, we cannot infer that what we see...

Descartes was one of the first philosophers to connect philosophy to the study of natural science through reason. He believed that all natural phenomena had rational explanations and that applying...

Descartes believed that humans have the capacity to be rational and know the difference between good and evil. Descartes separated knowledge into two kinds: His philosophy was based on a foundation...