Contending against the prevailing view that Cartesian dualism is fundamental to understanding Descartes's philosophy, Gordon Baker and Katherine Morris present a controversial examination of Descartes's philosophy. As the first full-length study of Descartes's conception of the person, Baker and Morris depart radically from traditional representations of Descartes's argument about the persona, the cogito, and the alleged "mind/body" dualism. Contesting the nearly institutionalized view that Cartesian duality is central to understanding Descartes, Baker and Morris illuminate how this "reading" has put ascribed mistakingly, erroneously onto Descartes. They show controversially, how this interpretation has led to both abuse both within philosophy and beyond it. Refusing to draw a distinction between the mind and the body in traditional ways, Baker and Morris open up interesting ways of conceptualizing both ourselves and philosophy itself.

Preface. Acknowledgements. Abreviations and shortened titles. 1 Visions - the programme, the strategy. 2. Cartesian Dualism - The Two wrold View, Consciousness and Clockwork, Catesian Introspection and Cartesian Observation, Cartesian Interaction. 3. A Shadow of a doubt - the two worlds view, Consciousness and Clockwork, Cartesian Introspection and Cartesian Observation, Cartesian Interaction. 4. Descartes' Dualism, The two-substances view, rational souls and sentient machines, self-knowledge, God and 'Our Nature as Union of Mind and Body', summary. 5. Revisions Descartes' Dualilsm: Neglected Aspects, Assesments of Descartes' Dualism, Metaphysics and concept formation, Conceptual Changes, Swapping New for Old, Division of Labour, Philosophical Imagination. Bibliography. Index of citations from Descartes. Name Index . Subject Index.