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Letters


Letters


Cartesian Confusion? • Virtue in wartime • War always corrupts • Unbounded God • Philosophy in High Schools • Global Warning • Blame People Not Governments • Algebra and Mistakes • Divine Intentions • Sex Lives of the Sages


Cartesian Confusion?


DEAR EDITOR: Mary Midgley’s article on the mind/body problem (Philosophy Now, Issues 47 and 48) is an excellent example of a philosopher confusing what Descartes actually wrote with what is merely an unfortunate and misguided tradition within Cartesian scholarship. Her essay locates Descartes’ work within the Enlightenment response to science (particularly physics), claiming that mind/body dualism was designed to “fit the new science into European culture without harming its Christian background”. From here, Midgley argues that, after Descartes, “the physical universe was no longer a mighty living creature, but simply a more or less infinite pile of raw material provided for humans to exploit”. She reaches this conclusion after looking briefly at the work of McGinn and some recent, controversial work on consciousness and physics. The reader could therefore be forgiven for thinking that this was the sum total of Descartes’ intellectual legacy fortunately, however, it is not.


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