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Question: a) How, according to Matthews, does Descartes' new concept of mind differ from that of his Aristotelian predecessors? b) Explain any potential problems that Cartesianism gives rise to. According to Gareth B. Matthews, Descartes new concept of the mind differed from that of his Aristotelian predecessors by way of his rejection of two traditional views. As Matthews writes in his work Consciousness and Life (1977) 'The traditional connection he [Descartes] rejected is that between thinking, or being conscious, and living.' 'The traditional separation he rejected is the separation of living things and mechanisms...'.1 Aristotle declared that all living things had matter and form. Matter was just stuff and had no properties, it was just what something is made from. The properties of a living thing amounted to its form, and its form was equivalent to its soul. For example, a plant's properties are that it feeds and reproduces. These properties are it's form and...

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