Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 19 of 138
For Descartes no material object is conscious
The problem for Descartes was not the general question of how a mental substance can arise out of neurobiology, because for him it cannot. His question was rather how specific mental contents such as feeling a pain can arise from the impact of an injury to my body. We think the very existence of a mind is explained by the operations of the brain. Descartes did not think that was possible. For him the question was only how specific thoughts and feelings, such as a sensation of pain, can be caused by events occurring to the body. It is important to emphasize this point: we tend to think, even the dualists among us, that our bodies with their brains are conscious. Descartes did not think that. He thought bodies and brains could no more be conscious than tables or chairs or houses, or any other hunk of junk. Conscious souls are separate, though somehow attached to human bodies. But no material object, living or dead, is conscious.