ABSTRACT
In Descartes’ tree of knowledge, knowledge that grows along any branch must be rooted in his metaphysics of created substance, of which there are two: mind and body. Curiously, however, the discussion of the union of mind and body appears to float free from this structure. The union is irreducible to these two fundamental categories and demands its own, sui generis mode of explanation. Professor Lilli Alanen’s work on mind-body unity has been critical both in terms of problematising the union and in suggesting a rich account of how to understand it and its relationship to the fundamental categories of Descartes’ metaphysics. This chapter explores that extensive contribution, elaborating on the metaphysics of unity that undergirds the phenomenology that Alanen has shown is pivotal to Descartes’ analysis of human existence.
