Rethinking Descartes’s Substance Dualism
About this eBook
This early modern view has some connections with Hasker’s substance emergent dualism (1999). Indeed, Hasker states that the mind is a substance emerging at one time from neurons and that consciousness has causal powers which effects cannot be explained by physical neurons. An emergent unified self-existing entity emerges from the brain on which it acts upon. For its proponents, Hasker’s view explains what Descartes’s dualism fails to explain, especially why the mind regularly interacts with one and only one body. After questioning the notion of emergence, the author argues that the theory of emergent creationist substance dualism that she attributes to Descartes is a more appropriate alternative because it faces fewer problems than its rivals.
This monograph is valuable for anyone interested in the history of early modern philosophy and contemporary philosophy of mind.
About the author
Dr Lynda Gaudemard is an Associate Researcher and Lecturer in philosophy at the University of Aix-Marseille (Aix-en-Provence) where she received her PhD in 2012. She is also Lay Assessor at the Juvenile Court (Marseille). She was Senior Lecturer in philosophy at the University of Geneva and Assistant Professor of philosophy at the University of Lausanne. She specializes in early modern philosophy with a focus on René Descartes. She is also author of articles on bioethics and children’s rights.
