Assembled by Christopher Lay

Los Angeles Pierce College

Department of Philosophy & Sociology

Descartes' Argument for Mind/Body Dualism

from his 6th Meditation  

"In order to begin this examination, then, I here say, in the first place, that there is a great difference between mind and body, inasmuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible.  For, as a matter of fact, when I consider the mind, that is to say, myself inasmuch as I am only a thinking thing, I cannot distinguish in myself any parts, but apprehend myself to be clearly one and entire; and although the whole mind seems to be united to the whole body, yet if a foot, or an arm, or some other part is separated from my body, I am aware that nothing has been taken away from my mind.  And the faculties of willing, feeling, conceiving, etc. cannot be properly speaking said to be its parts, for it is one and the same mind which employs itself in willing and in feeling and understanding.  But it is quite otherwise with corporeal or extended objects, for there is not one of these imaginable by me which my mind cannot divide into parts, and which consequently I do not recognize as being divisible; this would be sufficient to teach me that the mind or soul of man is entirely different from the body, if I had not already learned it from other sources.  (Descartes, 196)."  Quoted in Bruce and Barbone's (2011) Just the Arguments, p. 295-6.