''Res extensa'' is one of the two substances described by

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...

in his Cartesian ontology (often referred to as "radical dualism"), alongside '' res cogitans''. Translated from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, "''res extensa''" means "extended thing" while the latter is described as "a thinking and unextended thing". Descartes often translated ''res extensa'' as "corporeal substance" but it is something that only God can create.

''Res extensa'' vs. ''res cogitans''

''Res extensa'' and ''res cogitans'' are mutually exclusive and this makes it possible to conceptualize the complete intellectual independence from the body. ''Res cogitans'' is also referred to as the soul and is related by thinkers such as

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

in his ''De Anima'' to the indefinite realm of potentiality. On the other hand, ''res extensa'', are entities described by the principles of logic and are considered in terms of definiteness. Due to the polarity of these two concepts, the natural science focused on ''res extensa''. In the Cartesian view, the distinction between these two concepts is a methodological necessity driven by a distrust of the senses and the ''res extensa'' as it represents the entire material world. The categorical separation of these two, however, caused a problem, which can be demonstrated in this question: How can a wish (a mental event), cause an arm movement (a physical event)? Descartes has not provided any answer to this but

Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathem ...

proposed that it can be addressed by endowing each geometrical point in the ''res extensa'' with mind. Each of these points is within ''res extensa'' but they are also dimensionless, making them unextended. In Descartes' substance–attribute–mode ontology, extension is the primary attribute of corporeal substance. He describes a piece of wax in the Second

Meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

(see

Wax argument The wax argument or the ball of wax example is a thought experiment that René Descartes created in the second of his '' Meditations on First Philosophy''. He devised it to analyze what properties are essential for bodies, show how uncertain our kn ...

). A solid piece of wax has certain sensory qualities. However, when the wax is melted, it loses every single apparent quality it had in its solid form. Still, Descartes recognizes in the melted substance the idea of wax.

References

Concepts in metaphysics {{Philosophy-stub

''Res extensa'' vs. ''res cogitans''

See also

References