Gender In Science: Rene Descartes’ Mind-Body Dualism

Rene Descartes’ Mind-body philosophy has developed to be the deepest and most influential thesis of his legacies. Descartes argued in his thesis Dualism: mind and body are really distinct. In his argument, he explained that the material body is fully recognizably different in nature from the immaterial world. The material body is entirely unrelated to the immaterial mind. Therefore, the differences in the material makeup of male and female bodies cannot result in differences in male and female minds.

Woman as an imperfect man is an argument deliberated by Schiebinger, a professor of history of science. This thought was brought about from the study of ancient cosmologies. In a primeval time, woman was looked at as distinct sexual and moral being, exclusive and inferior to man. Woman’s inferiority to man depended on her lesser heat. Heat or fire along with earth, air, and water constituted the four elements of the terrestrial sphere. The four-element theory elucidated as everything in the sublunary world is composed of four elements: air-dry, water-wet/moist, fire-heat, and earth-cold. Everything can be examined because they are mostly composed of these four elements. Schiebinger argued on one hand, that things mostly composed of air and fire are considered and solely positioned with superiority, active, ruling, and masculine. Such characteristics induced to be all men and also described and correlated to the Sun.

On the other hand, things which are mostly composed of earth and water recounted with inferiority, passive, subordinate, and feminine. Such attributes fell down to and identified to as a woman and related to the moon. The proportion of the material elements (four elements) that formed an individual governed their psychological, intellectual, and physiological character. Women bodies contained less fire. Therefore, they are inferior to men. The reasons on areas of female inferiority are: no sufficient intellectual capacity to engage in Math, Science, and philosophy. In ancient Greece, only men would be given opportunities for education. Women back then wouldn’t have opportunities to be educated.

In Physiological aspect according to Schiebinger, males and females have the same sex organs but females lack the fire or heat imperative to propel their organs outward. Men’s organs were similar to women’s in kind and number. However, women’s organ were internal, women persisted “imperfect and, as it were, disfigured.” The difference between men and women is of importance depended on their conflicting degrees of heat. Women simply lacked sufficient heat to propel their sex organs outward. Patently, woman’s inferiority to man is because of nature’s always strive for perfection.

A refute on this argument, princess Elisabeth of Bohemia expressed her disapproval to Descartes’ Dualism: mind over matter. Moreover on the argument, Princess Elisabeth conveyed her thoughts on the subject; from the correspondence between princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and Descartes, she says, “If mind and matter are completely distinct, then they cannot be in contact.” According to her autonomous thought, all have complete control on what we think and is capable to shift our attention on jumping on one object to another, and so its order does not depend on the informal order of material things. Also, at the same time, she believed in thoughts that were controlled by us, and the free will navigated to it, existed dependently on the wholly condition of the body. Elisabeth disapproved of an account of thoughts reduced to bodily states. At the same time, she questioned the proposal that the capacity of inducing thoughts exists completely independently of body. Elisabeth, however, does not developed an answer to the question, where the force of her question to Descartes, to further describe what he means by substance becomes comprehensible. As her nature as a female, Elisabeth introduced herself as one bodily condition that can create reason.

Descartes successfully built a thesis of philosophy focused on principal difficulties which are in most cases analyzed in philosophy. Also, at the same time, he dissected some laws developed in nature by God in such a discipline, and of which he has implanted on minds of the many such perceptions. Descartes “real distinction” is related to or with industrial and applied sciences indicating the variation between two or more substances. Correspondingly, a manner demands a substance to have objective reality or being and not just on agreement of God. Take for example, sphere shaped is an extended manner of a substance. It requires an object expanded in three dimensions and it will seem to exist: an unexpanded sphere is impossible to be conceived with no contradiction. However, a substance is understood to be an object of reality on its own even with no required any being to exist. Take for example, the existence of a stone stands alone on itself. Meaning, its reality or existence does not depend upon the reality of other bodies or of the mind; a stone exists regardless of its shape and size. It is an indication for Descartes’ thesis that God if he chose, could form a world established by this stone all on its own, proving further a substance that is really distinct above everything else but from God. Therefore, Descartes’ thesis explained the distinction between the mind and the body just means both could exists all on its own without it relating to any other being or creature, if it would be chosen by God to do it.

Descartes’ dualism on its entire volume is portrayed in the film The Metropolis. Metropolis entailed on human conditions expounded on dualism: mind over matter. Throughout the film, a theme is explained on the good vs. evil confrontation. These are revealed from some of the scenes on the film. A star drawn in the form of a pentagram on the entrance door of the inventor and scientist Rotwang’s house. A star pentagram indicated natural order – mind over matter. This could also mean that Rotwang as a man has an advantage on understanding the divine and nature. Hence, he invented a technology that stole the identity of a woman named Maria and took her appearance and placed it in a robot. Rotwang’s twisted moral on resurrecting her dead loved one took on a dark toll whereas he used a real person’s identity to create a controlled being residing with his desires and to satisfy his longing to be with his beloved once again. This perverted moral encompassed Rotwang’s desire and actions is revealed on the symbol pinned on the wall of his laboratory – the inverted pentagram: matter over mind. It is the inversion of the natural order. It means evil that leads to chaos. In the end of the film, good triumphed; Fred won the fight against Rotwang at the top of the cathedral with death of the mad scientist. This epic battle portrayed and symbolized the confrontation between the good (Fred) and evil (Rotwang). Dualism of the human condition as it’s conveyed in the movie is the heart of the film.