Rene Descartes radically changed our conception of the human mind when he identified the essence of the mind as consciousness. According to this Cartesian view, the mind is identical with consciousness. In other words, it is transparent. In contemporary philosophy, however, this thesis does not seem strong and convincing enough. In this post, we will discuss some important thoughts of philosophers to show why the Cartesian picture of mind is not true. In addition to philosophical arguments, we will also explore Freud’s statements about the human mind. Finally, we will come to the conclusion that the classical Cartesian view is untenable. Nevertheless, a weakened version of it can be defended.
Ahmet Kadir USLU (Wed,) studied this question.