... own thinking mind. Descartes was a interactive dualist, as he argued that a body without a soul would be an automation, completely under the mechanistic control of external stimuli and its internal hydraulic or "emotional" condition - and completely without consciousness. On the other hand, a soul or mind without a body would have consciousness, but only of the innate ideas; it would lack the sensory impressions and ideas of material things that occupy normal human consciousness most of the time. Thus the body presumably adds richness to the contents of the soul's consciousness, while the soul adds rationality and volition to the causes of behaviour. Therefore, Descartes believed that behaviour is not the result of mind or body acting alone, but the many different possible kinds of interactions between the two. Therefore, Descartes had confidence in his clear and distinct ideas concerning the material world. Other philosophers, however, came gradually ...

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