Epistemological Issue 1: Is Descartes’ rationalist foundationalism coherent?

        Descartes holds that a dualist worldview can be established with logical certainty. He first overcomes any doubt that he exists with his famous cogito; ergo sum: (I think; therefore, I am). He then reasons to the existence of God as a perfect being. He goes on to conclude that the physical world (including his physical body) exists on the grounds that a perfect being would not deceive him into believing the world exists if it did not exist. Finally, he concludes that his nonphysical mind is the soul, which is trapped in the physical body while he lives here on earth.

        STRENGTH: Descartes sets out to answer the question: Is there any room for value in a world of scientific fact? He associates morality with the divine mind and gives logical proof of the existence of God. Persons searching for factual certainty that God exists turn to Descartes’ logical proof to support their belief in God.

        WEAKNESS: Descartes’ answer to the mind-body problem. In answer to the question of how the mind is related to the body, Descartes claims that the mind causes physical events and the body causes mental events in a process known as causal interaction. It is unclear, however, how the mind (a nonphysical entity not located in space and time) can cause the body (a physical entity located in space and time) to do anything.