The place of the soul in the philosophy of Descartes

Descartes, while looking for something that is certain that he will base his philosophy on and that is not doubted by him; stating that we could not doubt if we did not exist as an inference of the proposition 'I think, then I exist', based the soul, the essence of which is thinking, as the principle of his philosophy. Descartes, however, for töz, referring to what does not need anything other than himself to exist; he attributed tözsel to the soul. This specificity is due to the idea that the soul can exist without the need for the body. As a matter of fact, Descartes stated that the soul does not need a place to exist by thinking about the essence of the soul and determining the essence of the body as a covering. However, Descartes pointed to the pineal gland located in the brain as the 'place' where the soul and the body interact; thus, he attributed a physiological place in the brain to the soul. This situation can be seen as a contradiction in the philosophy of Descartes. In order to illustrate this contradiction, this thesis has been composed of three parts: In the First Part of the thesis, Descartes' philosophy as a whole was discussed; thus, his system of thought was tried to be shown through the concepts that he had systematically constructed. In the Second Chapter, Descartes' concept of the soul is brought to the forefront; the superiority of the soul in its relationship with the body is emphasized. In the Third Chapter, Decartes' 'the place of the soul', which he revealed based on the physiological differences between the soul and the body, is explained. In the Conclusion Section of the thesis, it is evaluated that Descartes built his system by considering the objects of philosophy and science, which are two different fields, the same; with a reductionist and biased point of view. As a matter of fact, although there is no such distinction as the philosophy-science distinction in Descartes, there is an inner wisdom. This put Descartes in a situation where he contradicted what he had previously said in order to remain consistent with a discourse such as 'the place of the soul".