Princess Elisabeth’s attack on Descartes’ Dualist Theory of Mind (from 1643)

This is a video lecture about The Problem of Mental Causation. This is a problem that is at the heart of all of philosophy of mind for the last several hundred years. It was presented by Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia in a letter to Rene Descartes in the spring of 1643. Put very briefly, Princess Elisabeth’s point is simply that the mind, which Descartes understands as wholly non-physical/immaterial cannot move the material body because in order for something to move a physical object the mover must itself be an extended physical object capable of physical contact. This is part of an Introduction to Philosophy course. Video about Descartes’ Sixth Meditation: