The thought that the self (soul or mind) is completely distinct from the body has been widely regarded as Descartes’ fundamental mistake: separating the mind from the body. He is the philosopher who is blamed for the legacy of mind–body dualism—an idea that is now deeply entrenched in our everyday sensibility and yet we know is problematic. As his writings were published, there were already objections and questions raised that Descartes was separating the mind from the body. If the mind and body are different substances, then how could it be that in our everyday experiences they seem completely connected, integrated, and interacting?
Now, Descartes was apparently dismayed at this misunderstanding, and he stressed that he was not saying that the body and mind were separate but merely that they were “distinct.” Being distinct does not imply separate. Furthermore, in his fascinating reflections on The Passions of the Soul (1989), Descartes shows over and over again how body and mind are intricately interconnected and how the state of the body will influence the state of the mind or soul. However, the view that Descartes had attempted to prove the duality of body and mind in his Discourse on Method (2003) and The Principles of Philosophy (2012) has persisted until the present, though some philosophers have attempted to rescue Descartes from the “excessive interpretation” of his metaphysical dualism by his critics (see, for example, Afloroaei, 2010).
Despite all the controversy about the mind–body dualism issue, Descartes has had a profound influence on philosophy. And, with respect to phenomenology, he has especially inspired Husserl in the development of his transcendental phenomenology and the method of the epoché and the reduction. What for Descartes was the method of doubt became for Husserl the epoché. But, of course, these notions are nevertheless very different. When Husserl is invited by the Académie Française to present his lectures about his phenomenology in the Amphithéâtre Descartes, at the Sorbonne in Paris, he goes out of his way to acknowledge the importance of the thinking of Descartes.
Selected Readings:
Descartes, R. (1989). The Passions of the Soul. (S. Voss, transl.) Cambridge, MA: Hackett Publishing Company.
Descartes, R. (2003). Discourse on Method and Related Writings. (D. M. Clarke, transl.) London: Penguin Books.
Descartes, R. (2008). Meditations on First Philosophy with Selections from the Objections and Replies. (M. Moriarty, transl.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Descartes, R. (2012). The Principles of Philosophy. (J. Veitch, transl.) Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.