ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a theory of mind, due to the seventeenth-century French philosopher Rene Descartes. The dualist view of persons that Descartes defended is a form of substance dualism. All the difficulties with the pairing problem arise because of the radically nonspatial nature of minds in traditional substance dualism. The chapter considers some arguments that apparently favor the dualist thesis that minds are distinct from bodies. It also considers the supposed difficulties for Descartes's interactionist dualism. The chapter also focuses on another causal argument against Cartesian substance dualism. If this argument works, it will show not only that immaterial minds cannot causally interact with material things situated in space but also that they are not able to enter into causal relations with anything else, including other immaterial minds. The chapter discusses the various forms of both property dualism and reductionist physicalism.
