Abstract
This paper examines Descartes's third primary notion and the distinction between different kinds of knowledge based on different and mutually irreducible primary notions. It discusses the application of the notions of clearness and distinctness to the domain of knowledge based on that of mind-body union. It argues that the consequences of the distinctions Descartes is making with regard to our knowledge of the human mind and nature are rather different from those that have been attributed to Descartes due to the influential Rylean picture of Cartesian mind-body dualism.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alanen, Lilli: 1989, ‘Descartes's Dualism and the Philosophy of Mind’, Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 3, 319–414.
Aristotle: 1941, Nicomachean Ethics, in R. McKeon (ed.) The Basic Works of Aristotle, Random House, New York.
Baier, Annette: 1981, ‘Cartesian Persons’, Philosophia 10(3–4), 169–188, reprinted in Baier 1985, pp. 74–92.
Baier, A.: 1985, Postures of the Mind: Essayson Mind and Morals, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.
Beyssade, Jean-Marie: 1983, ‘La classification cartésienne des passions’, Revue Internationale de Philosophie 136, 278–287.
Brandom, Robert: 1981, ‘Leibnitz and Degrees of Perception’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 19(4), 447–80.
Broughton, Janet, and R. Mattern: 1978, ‘Reinterpreting Descartes on the Notion of the Union of Mind and Body’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 16, 23–32.
Cottingham, John: 1986, Descartes, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Davidson, Donald: 1980, ‘Mental Events’, in Essays on Actions and Events, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Descartes, René: 1897–1913, Oeuvres de Descartes, Vols. I–XII, Charles Adam and Paul Tannery (eds.), Leopold Cerf, Paris. (Cited as AT.)
Descartes, R.: 1911/1978, in E. S. Haldane and G. R. T. Ross (eds.), The Philosophical Works of Descartes, 2 vols., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. (Cited as HR.)
Descartes, R.: 1970, in Anthony Kenny (ed.), Descartes, Philosophical Letters, Clarendon Press, Oxford. (Cited as K.)
Donagan, Alan.: 1986, ‘The Worst Excess of Cartesian Dualism’, in A. Donagan, A. N. Perovich Jr. and M. V. Wedin (eds.), Human Nature and Natural Knowledge: Essays Presented to Marjorie Grene on the Occasion of her Seventy-Fifth Birthday, D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht, pp. 313–25.
Gilson, Étienne: 1925/1967, Commentary in Descartes, Discours de la méthode, J. Vrin, Paris.
Gilson, É.: 1930/1975, Étude sur le rôle de la pensée médiévale dans la formation du systéme de Descartes, J. Vrin, Paris.
Gouhier, Henri Gaston: 1962, La pensée métaphysique de Descartes, Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, Paris.
Grene, Marjorie: 1985, Descartes, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.
Guéroult, M.: 1968, Descartes selon l'ordre desraisons, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Aubier Montaigne, Paris.
Hamelin, O.: 1911, Le système de Descartes, Alcan, Paris.
Leibnitz, G. W.: 1981, in P. Remnant and J. Bennett (eds.), New Essays on Human Understanding, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Malcolm, N.: 1971, Problems of Mind: Descartes to Wittgenstein, Harper Torchbooks, New York.
Malcolm, Norman: 1977, Thought and Knowledge, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Malcolm, Norman: 1984, Consciousness and Causality, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Radner, Daisy: 1971, ‘Descartes' Notion of the Union of Mind and Body’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 9, 159–170.
Richardson, Robert C.: 1982, ‘The “Scandal” of Cartesian Interactionism’, Mind 91, 20–37.
Rodis-Lewis, Geneviève: 1964, ‘Le domaine propre de l'homme chez les Cartésians’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 2(2), 157–188.
Rodis-Lewis, G.: 1971, ‘L'Oeuvre de Descartes, vol. 1, J. Vrin, Paris.
Ryle, Gilbert: 1949, The Concept of Mind, Hutchinson's University Library, London.
Spinoza, Baruch: 1982, The Ethics and Selected Letters, Seymour Feldman (ed), Hackett Pub. Co., Indianapolis, IN.
Wilson, Margaret: 1978a, Descartes, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Wilson, M.: 1978b, ‘Cartesian Dualism’, in M. Hooker (ed.), Descartes: Critical and Interpretative Essays, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, pp. 197–211.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alanen, L. Reconsidering Descartes's notion of the mind-body union. Synthese 106, 3–20 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413611
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413611