First of all, I’d like to provide a caveat: I am not asking for homework help. In fact, this isn’t even for a homework assignment at all, really, but it is important, and it is something I am working to understand. I just need the assistance of other educated humans (because those are hard to find around here right now).

Anyway, I am trying to better understand the relationship between mind and matter (the mind-body split, or mind-body problem as it is sometimes known) and what Rene’ Descartes and Baruch Spinoza had to say about it.

For instance, I am aware that Descartes first identified the issue. He was a dualist who believed in “thinking stuff” and “substantive stuff” as the two disparate types of substances in the world.

Spinoza, on the other hand, believed that there is only one substance, which he defines in his Ethics. Basically, Spinoza believed that the only type of substance, which was God, making him a monist.

Both philosophers were rationalists.

Out of the two, I tend to agree with Descartes, though I still have reservations about his rationalistic methods in the first place (since rationalism relies on the assertion of certain axioms that the remainder of your argument must be built upon). However, I am having trouble finding explicit points of contention between the two philosophers and their views, aside from the differences in their dualism and monism.

Can anyone out there help clarify for me?

Topics: God, philosophy, body, mind, substance, existence, dualism, monism, rationalism, Philosophers