Open AccessThe complete mind
Author(s) -
József Simon
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
különbség
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2560-158X
pISSN - 1785-7821
DOI - 10.14232/kulonbseg.2021.21.1.293
Subject(s) - cartesianism , argument (complex analysis) , epistemology , philosophy , criticism , mind–body problem , identity (music) , psychology , literature , aesthetics , art , chemistry , biochemistry
My contribution considers the problem of the real distinction between mind and body and its resulting consequences regarding the unity of human being against the background of a debate on Cartesianism between Hungarian intellectuals of Early Modernity. In his Syllabus (1685), János Pósáházi censured 32 Cartesian assertions and criticized frequently Descartes’ conceivability argument for the real distinction. His criticism involved Descartes’ terminological innovation of introducing the complete ideas besides clear and distinct ones in the Replies as criteria for the argument from conceivability. Pósaházi’s censure was refuted in the same year in a text titled as Vindiciae written by an author whose identity we are not aware of today. The paper presents the anonymous author’s defense of Cartesianism regarding the problem of body-mind relationship.