Philosophical Works · Chapter
LII explained
Descartes discusses the univocal application of the term 'substance' to both mind and body, explaining that substance is known through its attributes and that created substances require only God's concurrence to exist.
What happens
Descartes discusses the univocal application of the term 'substance' to both mind and body, explaining that substance is known through its attributes and that created substances require only God's concurrence to exist.
Themes in this chapter
Mind-Body Dualism
The term 'substance' is applied univocally to both mind and body, highlighting their shared metaphysical status while maintaining their distinctness.
Reason and Method
Descartes employs a methodical inference from attributes to substance, demonstrating the rational process of discovering metaphysical truths.
Characters to notice
- René Descartes
Author and philosopher presenting the argument.
- God
Referred to as the concourse necessary for the existence of created substances.
Key passages
“Created substances, however, whether corporeal or thinking, may be conceived under this common concept; for these are things which, in order to their existence, stand in need of nothing but the concourse of God.”
Both physical and mental created substances share the same general definition: they require only God's cooperation to exist.
Clarifies the univocal concept of substance for mind and body.
“We easily, however, discover substance itself from any attribute of it, by this common notion, that of nothing there are no attributes, properties, or qualities: for, from perceiving that some attribute is present, we infer that some existing thing or substance to which it may be attributed is also of necessity present.”
We can identify a substance by observing any of its attributes, because the principle that nothing has no properties tells us that wherever there is a property, there must be a substance that has it.
Explains the epistemological method for knowing substance through its attributes.