In order to truly understand the nature of the human mind as asked in the course syllabus one must be able to define a thinking individual, something that Descartes attempts and succeeds in achieving. In his Letter to the Marquess of Newcastle, Descartes rejects others’ belief that animals have reasoning or thoughts and devices a sort of test based on a defining characteristic of a thinking mind that he believes can successfully separate the thinking from the non-thinking. Descartes thoroughly seeks for a distinguishing feature that separates an animal mind from a human mind and comes to the conclusion that an “external action”, more specifically the capacity for linguistic activity is the difference.

According to Descartes, defining a thinking creature is ultimately decided by the “external action” of linguistic capability; however, Descartes makes certain that actions that are inane, for example, are not included. In this passage, Descartes’ idea of “external actions” is not simply the ability to eat, talk or walk (explained further later) but rather a more complex action that incurs more complex thoughts: the capacity for linguistic activity. However, Descartes does

Descartes describes passion as a reaction to a certain feeling that does not fully require thought and in turn decides that the capacity for linguistic activity, as described above, are the only “external actions” that are able to show a thinking mind. Some examples of actions based on passions given by Descartes include eating, walking and protecting oneself from falling down. These actions, Descartes believes, are merely our reactions to feelings that in fact do require some thinking in our part but that would happen nonetheless (CR, p. 36). In other words, these actions of passion, eating or walking, are things one do subconsciously, it requires some thinking but not as much as having a reasonable, intelligent conversation does. What ultimately differentiates humans from animals according to Descartes is innate possibility (CR, p. 36). Thinking complex enough to have a meaningful conversation with someone is something that is a matter of learning maturing as individuals rather than learning or being born with that trait. Eating is something that is innate for both humans and animals, when something is placed in their mouth their first instinct (action of passion) is to chew; the only difference is that humans must mature enough to be able to hold a spoon, not only learning from a parent but being able to physically hold a spoon and remember to do it each time. The difference in innate tendencies, actions of passion and the capacity of language are what separates animals and humans and in turn causes some creatures to be excluded.

With this definition Descartes manages to exclude animals but include humans that have some sort of mental capacity and sometimes would be thought of as not having linguistic capacity. Animals are excluded from being capable of a reasonable linguistic ability even though animals such as parrots are able to utter some words (CR, p. 36). The reason for this is because Descart

Some topics in this essay:
Truth Sciences, Marquess Newcastle, According Descartes, Newcastle Descartes, Thinking Soul, cr 36, Professor Levin, linguistic activity, capacity linguistic activity, capacity linguistic, Newcastle” CR, expression passion, actions passion, Letter Marquess, signs relevant particular, linguistic capability, hold spoon, signs relevant, able respond, letter marquess newcastle, relevant speech,