Two ultimate classes of things. Descartes’ doctrine about anything that exists, whether it is a whole or a part or an essence of an actual or potential being, departs from his doctrine of strict substance dualism. Descartes’ notion of substance is deeply affected by the established Aristotelian scholastic tradition, which recognised by the term ‘substance’ an individual object, composed of material and form. (For a discussion of the Aristotelian heritage and its influence to the Cartesian notion of substance and its properties see Burkhardt 2007). Nevertheless, Descartes breaks from the Aristotelian tradition in a decisive, epoch-making manner. Taking ‘I am’ (sum) as his ‘unshakeable foundation’ he concludes the necessary actual existence of God, and from these two starting points, he then deduces his other metaphysical theses. One fundamental conclusion he reaches is that there are two kinds of substances, the corporeal substance and thinking or intellectual substances, and that the corporeal substance and the thinking substances are really distinct and separable. He gives, as he views it, deductions and proofs for these theses …

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