Concept
Cartesian materialism
Overview
In philosophy of mind, cartesian materialism, a term coined by Daniel Dennett, views consciousness as tied to one or more specific brain areas that capture our subjective experience. Despite its name, this idea was not held by René Descartes, who instead advocated substance dualism—the separation of mind and body as distinct entities.
In its simplest form, Cartesian materialism suggests there is a dedicated "place" in the brain, called as the Cartesian theater by Dennett, where a unified representation of everything we consciously perceive—sights, sounds, smells, and more—exists at any given moment. According to this view, a hypothetical observer could locate the contents of consciousness in this privileged neural space, while anything outside it remains unconscious.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
II. How we likewise know that the human body is closely connected with the mind. We ought also to conclude that a certain body is more closely united to our mind than any other, because we clearly observe that pain and other sensations affect us without our foreseeing them; and these, the mind is…
René Descartes, Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
States what Cartesian materialism is; the author is tied to Cartesian materialism in the knowledge graph.
He holds that there are “thoughts”, which perform the function of “knowing”, but that thoughts are not made of any different “stuff” from that of which material objects are made. He thus laid the foundations for what is called “neutral monism”, a view advocated by most American realists. This is the view advocated in the present volume.
Bertrand Russell, Philosophy
States what Cartesian materialism is.
I abstain from the inquiry as irrelevant to the science of logic. In these so-called perceptions, or direct recognitions by the mind, of objects, whether physical or spiritual, which are external to itself, I can see only cases of belief; but of belief which claims to be intuitive, or independent of external evidence. When a stone lies before me, I am conscious of certain sensations which I receive from it; but if I…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Cartesian materialism is.
Related ideas
- Empiricism
- George Orwell
- Consciousness Explained
- Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis
- Mind–body dualism
- Qualia
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- René Descartes
- David Chalmers
- Pineal gland
- Stalinism
- Visual cortex
- Verificationism
- Duns Scotus
- Natural science
- Straw man
- Mechanism (philosophy)
- Hard problem of consciousness
- Antonio Damasio
- Philosophy of mind
- Julien Offray de La Mettrie
- Daniel Dennett
- Binding problem
- French materialism
Place in the tradition
Part of Eliminative materialism.