Map, quiz, and sort the four pillars of Descartes' view of human nature
The mind (or soul) is a distinct substance from the body. Who you really are is your thinking self — the body is incidental.
The will is free — perhaps the only thing we possess that is genuinely unlimited. We are free from causal determination.
We are fundamentally rational creatures. Emotions are disturbances that interfere with the clear perception of truth.
Being social is merely accidental to being human. The essential self exists independently of any social group or community.
Each quote or claim below reflects one of the four pillars of the Cartesian Package. Select the pillar it best represents.
"Thinking is another attribute of the soul; and here I discover what properly belongs to myself. This alone is inseparable from me... I am, then, in the strict sense only a thing that thinks."
"The will is so free in its nature, that it can never be constrained... it is the will alone which I experience in myself to be so great that I can conceive no other idea to be more great."
"I need to set my feelings aside and think about this logically. Emotions are just clouding my judgment and getting in the way of the right answer."
"I am who I am, regardless of what society or my culture says. My identity comes from within — not from any group I belong to."
A student says: "It doesn't matter what happens to my body — even if I become paralyzed, the real me, my thoughts and consciousness, remains unaffected." Which Cartesian pillar does this express?
Feminist philosopher Alison Jaggar argues that emotions can be a form of moral knowledge — that outrage at injustice, for example, can reveal truths that pure reason misses. Which Cartesian pillar is she challenging?
Drag each claim into the correct column. Some might surprise you!