How Descartes Screwed Up Our Thinking about Emotions for Centuries, pt I

Recapping the first Cartesian error

In the previous post I explained that the first Cartesian error is the belief that ‘mind’ or ‘mental activity’ is pure cognition and that ‘body’ is an unthinking machine, responsive only to pleasure and pain and having nothing to do with cognition. I say this because Descartes begins the Passions of the Soul with the claim that the soul is the mind, the nonphysical source of thought, and the body is its vehicle; physical, extended, sensitive and mobile.
A couple of other important background points: He believes that by the 17^th century there had been little progress in understanding true human nature, in explaining ourselves to ourselves (You may agree!); and he believes his problem solving method will enlighten us as to the nature of dualism.
Descartes’ method
Descartes’ method, as explained in his justly famous and immensely influential work, Discourse on the Method, has four parts:

1. Never accept anything as true that you can’t obviously accept as true.
2. Divide each of the problems you are examining in as many parts as you can
3. Develop your thoughts in order, beginning with the simplest and easiest to understand
4. When you go to review, make sure you establish every indubitable claim possible and every link you possibly can among them and check that everything you’ve included is correct.

Descartes was convinced that this method, with its fundamental premise of breaking down problems into their smallest possible components, lead him to offer a good explanation why humans’ smallest parts are the nonphysical mind and mechanical body.
Read the rest at my Dissertation blog