Fellow Cartesiophiles, The Cheiron listserve also has been discussing Descartes and his focus on the pineal gland as the seat of the soul. I am forwarding the following very interesting response for your edification and enjoyment I post, therefore I am, Jeff ---------------------------------------------------------------- >Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 10:52:43 +1100 >From: John Sutton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Descartes >X-UIDL: c177f2489d8dc68b9dd2f3421ffb8de6 > >Dear Kathy, >Descartes found it much easier to find the pineal in 'freshly killed >animals' than in undertaking human autopsies, as he wrote to Mersenne in >April 1640. His main dissection work was done around 1630, mainly in >Amsterdam: in late 1632 he was 'dissecting the heads of various animals, >so that [he could] explain what imagination, memory, etc. consist in'. >On Descartes' anatomical interests see, eg Jonathan Sawday, THE BODY >EMBLAZONED (Routledge, 1995), pp.146-158; G.A. Lindeboom, DESCARTES AND >MEDICINE (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1979), ch.3; Stephen Gaukroger, DESCARTES: >AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY (Oxford, 1995), pp.269-290. > >Descartes didn't think that the pineal gland in humans was the soul, nor >that possession of the pineal is either necessary or sufficient for a >soul. His denial of soul to animals is often misunderstood: he does not >deny sentience, or cognitive functions like memory and imagination (as >the above quote makes clear), but only 'consciousness' understood in his >special sense as 'self-consciousness'. Like many mid-C17 philosophers, >he wouldn't admit animal souls because incorporeality entailed >immortality, so that heaven would be full of beasts (contrary to >scriptures etc...). There's a nice piece on the theology of this problem >by Peter Harrison, 'Descartes on Animals', PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY 42 >(1992), 219-227. > >Incidentally some modern scholars have wrongly claimed that Descartes >thought animals have no pineal glands: eg Julian Jaynes in JHI 1970, >pp.226-7, followed by Anne Harrington in MEDICINE, MIND, & THE DOUBLE >BRAIN (1985), p.6. > >Hope this helps & good luck with your students >John > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Dept of Philosophy >Macquarie Uni >NSW 2109 > --------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Ricker Scottsdale Community College Scottsdale AZ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
