Because Descartes entertains conceptions of innate qualities...

Because Descartes entertains conceptions of innate qualities and essences and so regards the soul as a phenomenon in actu , his theory resembles Plato's.[^1] His theory falls as far short as Plato's of explaining the relation between spirit and body. This regression or reversion turned out to be very costly.

The essential and natural relation of body on the one hand and spirit or spiritual qualities on the other is not something one can ignore; one cannot content oneself with noting their discrepant and contrastive aspects. Intelligent people after Descartes sought to discover the relation of these two entities. Modern philosophers laboured to discover what sort of relation…