HUMAN NATURE ACCORDING

TO

R E N E D E S C A RT E S
&
KARL MARX
 FUN FACT!

Descartes was renowned as

the Father of Modern
Philosophy.
 First reason

He contended that prevalent view is

practically a delusion.
 Second reason

He constructed self-consciousness as
the irrefutable point of origin for
every certitude.
 Third reason

He made clear and distinct

knowledge as the certain criterion of
truth.
 Fourth reason

He introduced the mathematico-

mechancal view of nature, including
human nature, in philosophy.
 Concept of Substance
By substance, he means anything
that exists independently of other’s
existence. Substance exist by itself.
 Concept of Substance
At any rate, Descartes, if asked
regarding the number of substances,
says that there is, in the fullest sense,
only one substance and he admits it is
God.
 Concept of Substance
He then qualifies his idea of substance in the
created world. In elucidating this, he draws a
distinction between God as the infinite
substance, and man as the finite substance.
 Concept of Substance
If finite substance is created, therefore, it
cannot be considered a substance.
So, if man is a finite substance, then man
cannot be qualified as a substance because
man does not exist by himself but through
God.
 Concept of Substance
Substance-although it is only one-is
classified by Descartes into two kinds,
namely, indefinite and finite.
Man for Descartes presents his ultradualistic
substance
theory of man.
 Concept of Substance
Man, as a finite substance is both a thinking
substance and an extended substance. In his
own terms, Descartes calls thinking
substance Res Cogitans and extended
substance
as Res Extensa.
 Res Extensa
It refers to the body of man. Anything that
has a figure; it is confined to a particular
space and time; it is sensible; it can be
touched; it can be felt; it has weight; and it
has color.
 Res Cogitans
It refers to the soul of man. Soul is a
spiritual substance which is the first
immediate evident fact in the finite
substance. The essence or nature of the
soul is to think.
The most crucial issue here is that of life.
Can there be life apart from soul? Can
Res Extensa live apart from Res
Cogitans?
 There is nothing more lurid in Descartes
concept of the soul than when he said that
the soul is not the principle of life because
thinking is its essence. For Descartes, the
soul, instead of giving man life, gives man
consciousness.
 Through consciousness, thinking
becomes the all-embracing reality.
Descartes says that consciousness has
two states which he calls passive and
active.
 The former refers to sensation
and knowledge, while the latter
points to the form of man’s will.
 Now, let us go back to the issue of life.
A shocking statement had been forwarded to
us by Descartes when he said that is not the
soul that makes man’s body live, because for
him, the human body is a machine. Says the
father of the modern philosophy:
“The human body may be considered as a machine,
so built and composed of bones, nerves, muscles,
veins, blood, and skin that even if there were no
mind in it, it would not cease to move in all the
ways that it does at present when it is not moved
under the direction of the will, nor consequently
with the aid of the mind”.
 Life and motion are brought about not by the soul,
but by the vital motion that comes from within man
which the thinker calls “spiritus animals” or animal
spirits. These animal spirits are generated by the
blood and its warmth. Its direction starts from the
heart, to the brain, then to the nerves and muscles of
man causing man to move.
 Life and motion are brought about not by the soul,
but by the vital motion that comes from within man
which the thinker calls “Spiritus Animales” or
animal spirits. These animal spirits are generated by
the blood and its warmth. Its direction starts from
the heart, to the brain, then to the nerves and
muscles of man causing man to move.
DEATH
 In sum, Descartes argues that man is a substance.
As a substance, man is both thinking substance and
an extended substance. As a thinking substance man
can know and think apart from the body. As an
extended substance, man assumes life and move
through the animal spirits, not through the soul.
Therefore, in the cartesian philosophy, we can speak
of five factors governing life, namely, animal
spirits, blood and its warmth, heart, brain, and
muscles and nerves. However, what is prevalently
admitted and known of the cartesian view of man is
his dictum stated as follows:
“But what then am I? a thinking being. what
is a thinking being? it is a being which
doubts, which understands, which conceives,
which affirms, which denies, which wills,
which rejects, which imagines, and which
perceives.”
This is the cartesian compendium of man
as a substance: man is a machine and a
thinking being. man is “a thing which
thinks” says the father of modern
philosophy. The soul of man makes man a
thinking thing; while man’s body is a
materially extended thing.