Conceivability Argument and Dualism

Running head: CONCEIVABILITY ARGUMENT AND DUALISM
CONCEIVABILITY ARGUMENT AND DUALISM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CONCEIVABILITY ARGUMENT AND DUALISM1
René Descartes is one of the philosophical thinkers who had highlighted the dualism that
existed among the human beings. The celebrated French philosopher had highlighted the
importance of the skepticism within the human psyche that would help in the proper
understanding of the issues that are faced by the concerned individual in terms of the
identification of the individual in the world. individuals are distinct beings that are capable of
maintaining the differentiation among the physical and the mental identity of the concerned
human beings. The philosopher suggests that the capability of an individual to continue thinking
is one of the major characteristics that help the individuals to attain the status of being a thinking
thing that does not bears the property of extension (Block 1978). The inclusion of the thinking
capabilities on the part of the individuals tend to have been highlighting the fact that the
individual might cease to exist with the cease on the thinking processes that the individual has
been undertaking. The conceivability argument asserts the dualism that had been introduced by
Descartes. The following paper attempts a discussion over the conceivability argument and the
assertion of the dualism theory.
Dualism refers to the point of view that the human mind and the human body are two
separate identities and distinct from each other. The concept of dualism has highlighted the fact
that the world consists of two major domains that are independent of each other. These refer to
the material and the mental domains of existence (Chalmers 1993). The physical or the material
nature of the body is well-known and is evident on the exterior. The human body is known to
have been demonstrating the evidences of belonging to a materialistic domain. The body is
known for the maintenance of the physical attributes as is demonstrated by the other material
elements like the mass, weight, texture, dimensions and other such factors that enable the body to
retain its physical nature. On the other hand, the mind or the mental states of the individual does

CONCEIVABILITY ARGUMENT AND DUALISM2
not demonstrate the attributes of a physical object (Chalmers 2002). This is well-known amongst
all the individuals who have been residing within the world. The mind of individuals is not made
of physical factors and thus is known not to maintain the laws of the physical elements. The
mind maintains the essence of thought while the body maintains the essence of extension
(Papineau 2002). The mind might thus be stated to maintain a logically distinct and independent
identity as compared to the body. Thus it might be stated that the mind and the body would
maintain different sets of assertion. The entity of the mind is independent of the entity of the
body and thus would maintain a proper existence even during the situations wherein the body is
non-existent (Chalmers 2010). The major attributes of the mind refer to the infinite nature of the
human mind and the ability of the mind to maintain the existence into the afterlife as well.
However, the body is known to succumb to the decay and the disintegration with the passage of
time. The body of human beings does not maintain the immortality processes and thus are known
to have been non-existent with the non-existence of the mind (Flanagan and Polger 1995). The
conceivability argument as stated by the celebrated French philosophical thinker, René
Descartes, emphasizes on the duality in terms of the existence of the human mind and the human
body.
The conceivability argument highlights the fact that the human mind and the human body
maintain separate identities. The conceivability argument by Descartes is presented within the
Sixth Meditation that had been composed by the French philosopher (Descartes 1641).
The premises of the conceivability argument can be stated as follows.
An individual is capable of the conception of existence without the physical body.
Anything that can be conceived is possible