Mind and Method in Descartes’ Philosophy: Cartesian Arguments

Year 2018, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 33 - 44, 20.06.2018

İlyas Altuner

https://doi.org/10.18491/beytulhikme.434962

Abstract

It has been developed by Descartes the severe first
theory of the mind in philosophy after the relation between mind and idea in
Plato’s philosophy and the form-matter dichotomy or the distinction between
actuality and entelechy in Aristotle’s theory of the soul. Descartes has
approached the mental substance as apart from the bodily and has told that the
origin of whole truth knowledge could be made by notions from which arise
direct perceptions of the mind. Eventually, he has been obliged to the body seeing
as machine and afterward this conception of him has been criticized on metaphor
the ghost in the machine. In this paper, we try to mention Descartes’
understanding of the concept of the mind and his thoughts about the mind on
methodical function. As you can see, Descartes has a dogmatic understanding of
the mind. What drives him to this understanding is the view that the innate
ideas placed by God are the unique truths that constitute the strongest
foundations for human knowledge. To achieve knowledge, these principles have to
be obtained directly, that is, be clear and distinct, and this can be achieved
through intuition and deduction.

Keywords

Mind, method, concept, definition, innate ideas, intuition, deduction

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