PHIL 3210 Lecture Notes - Atomic Theory, Panpsychism, Asteroid Family
22 Oct 2013
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Margaret cavendish descartes"s physics and his theory of perception. A life ruled by reason: the control of the passions by the mind, the body can affect the mind but this is something we must act to avoid. Enlightenment ideal of mastery over nature: recall: women equated with the corporeal, the physical mother nature . The thinking self can disengage from the physical self, can reflect purely abstractly: its connected to the body but still distinct in a defining way, self defined by distinctness from physical body. Being able to imagine by the mind or one perceived by the senses . I am the one who thinks by body is the one that imagines. The soul when elevated contemplates body without being personally affected by it. Soul can be a dispassionate observer, the objective subject. Plagued by health problems; suffered from constant physical complaints. For descartes, dualism is something known by reason alone, not by experience in a physical body.
