It was René Descartes, (1596-1650) the French philosopher and mathematician, who first conceptualised the philosophy of ‘Dualism.’
This philosophy is what Descartes is well known for, but it constituted only one of his many works. Today, many scholars prefer to gather together all of Descartes’ work and put it into one convenient drawer called ‘Cartesianism.’
Descartes was famous for the quote: “I think therefore I am” and many renowned philosophers have considered Descartes to be the “father of modern philosophy.” His writings and essays became very popular with the great thinkers of the time. But today many contemporary philosophers would object to this elevation of his work, mainly because Descartes’ work is often used to promote Materialism. It is typical that those who defend Cartesianism are mainly psychologists who still consider Descartes’ work on Dualism to be a logical and well-defined description of the world regarding our perception of reality. Many of these scholars would even regard Descartes’ work as a definitive and workable ideology; the perfect “cornerstone” regarding Man’s understanding of his own perception.
Dualism is the philosophy, which considers ‘mind’ and ‘body’ – or rather, ‘mind’ and ‘matter’ to be two very different and separate things. This philosophy was composed from Descartes’ own reflections and intellectual observations. If we look further into Descartes’ development of his theme – that mind and matter are two separate distinctions – we can see that he was merely asserting the obvious as regards our normal perception . . . that our natural perception of reality is really a ‘dual perception.’
This dual perception of ours does not begin and end with the distinctions between mind and matter – which is at the heart of Dualism; it also extends into our everyday experience and interaction with things that have their opposite in nature.
For example there is ‘yes’ and ‘no’ – ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ – ‘light’ and ‘dark’ – ‘day’ and ‘night’ – ‘black’ and ‘white’ – ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ – ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ – ‘male ’ and ‘female’ – ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ – ‘pleasure’ and ‘pain’ – ‘life’ and ‘death’ etc. The list is endless.