Cogitans Res.
Cartesian philosophy in this expression refers to the mind. It is the reality that it is more true knowledge, knowledge that Descartes described by the phrase "I think therefore I am." The essential feature or attribute of the res cogitans is thought, understood as "being aware", and changing forms or modes of thought given in the strict sense, will, feelings, memories and generally what we now experience. Descartes also defends three basic propositions about minds:
· ; in the mind are innate ideas,
· ; mind is radically different from the body,
· ; and mind is the exclusive property of humans.
The consequence of this thesis is that psychology mentalists to use categories to explain human behavior, but not to explain animal behavior. The paradigm of psychology more influenced by the Cartesian conception of mind is cognitive psychology.
Established the radical separation of mind and body (dualism anthropology), Descartes thought and true to this view will face the difficulty of establishing how to relate to both substances. The relationship does not seem as easy to deny that certain mental states are followed by some physical states (the desire to leave the room the my body moving in that direction) and certain bodily states follow other mental states (the pressure on my hand is older and it seems that the cause of pain). Descartes tried to solve the problem of interaction mind / body indicating that both substances are in contact in the pineal gland.
extensive Res.
Descartes called "res extensa" to the bodies. The essential feature or attribute bodies is extension, ie, being in space, and variables or modes changes the amount, form and movement. As a result, bodies are subject to quantity and can be explained in mechanistic terms. Human beings are not pure extension, pure body, because they have minds, and the animals are pure extension, pure body, are like machines and can be explained in mechanistic terms.
At this point, Descartes faced the following problem: the animals have no mind but nevertheless many of their behavior seems to rest in states or mental processes (behave as if they perceived the environment, have fear or joy, and some even as smart resolve problems ...). In his time the engineers had built machines appearance of animals and in some cases of gods and men so well designed that gullible viewers might ascribe intentional, clever or mentalist. But obviously, have no mind as they have been designed by man are pure art. The same applies to animals, Descartes thought: the organization of the parts of his body has been designed in such a way that allows them to interact with the environment in terms that are misleading and cause such interpretations mentalist, being as they are, and like our machines, pure bodies. Obviously, the difference is that in the case of animals, the designer is not man but God.
As the reflection is clearer mechanistic behavior, Descartes considered that all animal behavior can be understood from glare. The Cartesian mechanistic conception, which he believed valid only for bodies was later extended also to men, as seen in the Russian reflexology and behaviorism.
I wanted to put this, to publicize various aspects in psychology I am passionate about, the ancient philosophers just stop for a moment and think they could do miracles ... now ... Now let's say ... trying to get us out of the crisis ...
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