The mind-body problem(s) in Descartes’ “meditations” and Husserl’s “crisis” (Part1)
Filosofska dumka (Philosophical Thought) November 4, 2020 DOI: 10.15407/fd2020.04.091 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that Descartes' "Meditations" presents an explicit ontological mind-body problem alongside an implicit conceptual one, while Husserl's "Crisis" makes the conceptual problem explicit and leaves the ontological one implicit. The author contends that Husserl nevertheless provides answers to both the traditional and conceptual mind-body problems. |
Abstract
The main topic of this paper is the mind-body problem. The author analyzes it in the context of Hus- serlian phenomenology. The key texts for the analysis and interpretation are Descartes’ magnum opus “Meditations on the First Philosophy” and Husserl’ last work “The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology”. The author claims that already in Descartes’ text instead of one mind-body problem, one can find two: the ontological mind-body problem (mind-brain relation) and conceptual one (“mind” and “body” as concepts). In Descartes’ “Meditations”, the ontological level is explicit, while the conceptual level is implicit. In Husserl’s “Crisis”, on the other hand, the situation is different: the conceptual level of the problem (as the opposition between transcendental phenom- enology and natural sciences) is explicit, while the ontological level is implicit. Nevertheless, it seems that Husserl has answers to both the “traditional” as well as the “conceptual” mind-body problems.