According to Heidegger then, the notion of substances can be completely removed from Descartes’ thought and the rest of his ideas will still stand up. Speaking of the physical and the psychical as two distinct substances is to talk about it within a certain ‘language’, that of the scholastic tradition which preceded Descartes. Had there been a different tradition with which he had to contend, Descartes may well have used a different language to convey his ideas, and certainly would have been unlikely to include the notion of substance. It is important to note that this is not simply a case for Heidegger of hidden presuppositions deriving from the context in which Descartes’ thought was formulated, but in fact more of a conscious decision on the part of Descartes who, whilst aware of the unsatisfactory nature of scholastic terminology, was heavily restricted by the need to remain relevant and, as Heidegger states, “intelligible” to this tradition.

¶ 8:28 PM