A quotation from Elisabeth of Bohemia
Quotation
I beg you to tell me how the soul of a human being can determine the bodily spirits to perform voluntary actions, being only a thinking substance.
Elisabeth of Bohemia
She asked Descartes the question he could never answer: if mind and body are separate substances, how does one move the other?
Elisabeth was the eldest daughter of the Winter King, Frederick V, and lived in exile in The Hague. She studied mathematics, languages, and philosophy. In 1643 she wrote to Descartes asking how an immaterial mind could cause physical movement. Her question exposed the deepest weakness of Cartesian dualism. Descartes tried to answer her and failed. Their correspondence, which continued until his death, covers not only metaphysics but ethics, the passions, and the good life. She eventually became Abbess of Herford in Germany. She is the reason we know that Descartes' system had a crack at its center.
Understanding This Quotation
What does Elisabeth of Bohemia mean by this quotation?
She asked Descartes the question he could never answer: if mind and body are separate substances, how does one move the other? Elisabeth was the eldest daughter of the Winter King, Frederick V, and lived in exile in The Hague. She studied mathematics, languages, and philosophy. In 1643 she wrote to Descartes asking how an immaterial mind could c…