As technology develops and improves, the difference between using a computer to find another person to interact with and the computer solely taking on the role of that individual is going to becoming progressively marginal. How many of our needs can be met by synthesized solutions? Whether they are physical or emotional needs. In this paper I will be analyzing Spike Jonze’s movie Her (2013) and how it dramatizes Cartesian dualism. I will also discuss if the movie seems to make Cartesian
Parker Dunbar
11/13/14
Phil 1000
Deborah Goldgaber
The Soul and Body as One
When attempting to ask and answer major philosophical questions, one of the major topics of discussion that comes up is the argument of the mind and body. How do you describe each?…show more content… He first claims that these two concepts are completely different things by stating, “we have for the body in particular only the notion of extension” and “for the soul alone, only the notion of thought” (Descartes 21.v.1643). He makes it clear that they are different and should be distinguished between each other. Additionally however, Descartes believes that these two concepts, the soul and body, are also united together and act upon each other. It is made clear that while the mind and body should be thought of as two separate concepts, they also act upon one another. This idea of dualism, the concept of the two individual aspects as well as their interaction, becomes one of Descartes main points of emphasis when responding to Elisabeth’s…show more content… Descartes claims that while these two are very different, they work had in hand and “the fact that being united to the body it can act and be acted on along with it” (Descartes 21.v.1643). Elisabeth objects this notion and believes that the soul and body must be separated. Since the soul is an immaterial thing and the body is an actual substance, she claims that there is no way these two can interact with each other and that since the soul is only a thinking substance, that it cannot affect bodily actions. This argument helps give new ways to think about the classic body-mind questions and after reading what Descartes and Elisabeth had to say about the subject we can get two different viewpoints about if these two do in fact interact with one
