Spinoza takes Descartes' idea and modifies it. Spinoza makes a distinction between thought and extension. These are two different attributes of the same substance. Everything is both thought and extension. Thought is known through ideas and extension is what exists and can be felt physically. Extension is therefore more of a physical property, while thought is a mental property. Descartes considers thought to be the property of the mind and extension to be the property of bodies. Spinoza, however, believes that the reality of mind and body can be distinguished into two distinct attributes: thought and extension. Spinoza believed that the mind and the body are different. That these are two different ways of description. Thus, for Spinoza, reality can be described by physical bodies or by ordered logical ideas. There are not two different sequences (one of the mind and one of the body) but the same sequence seen in different ways. For Spinoza, the mind and the body act simultaneously and one does not determine the other. In Spinoza there seems to be no real freedom of mind or will. The Cartesian division allows at least some freedom between the mind and the body, and vice versa, because there is some independence between the two. However, Descartes has divided the mind and the body and so he must find a reason for the mind to act on the body. He has separated thought from the world and therefore must find a way for thought to know the world. “Mind-body interaction was not a problem that Cartesian philosophy was originally intended to solve, but a problem that arose from Cartesian philosophy. system itself" (Radner, 1985 P.35) Here it is clear that Spinoza's account of the relationship between thought and extension is more defensible because Spinoza avoids all the problems of...... middle of paper ..... .mind and body being one is a better belief than Descartes' belief that they are separate. Spinoza avoids the problem of how the mind can act on the body, emphasizing that the mind and the body are not separate, that they act simultaneously, but that one does not cause the other. Spinoza also disagrees with Descartes' view that error is caused by free will. Spinoza believes instead that the error is caused by insufficient knowledge. This is a better view, as Spinoza points out, because Descartes has a false view of freedom. Spinoza's position is also more defensible because he does not view the body as inferior to the mind, as Descartes does. Instead, Spinoza believes that separation is unethical and that knowledge of the unity between body and mind is essential. I therefore find Spinoza's position more refutable. As Cotthingham described it in “The Rationalist’