Descarte's Pineal Gland: The Seat of the Soul

Explanation of the relationship between soul and body is one of the most important concerns of Dualist philosophers. Even though the Dualism goes back to Plato، Rene Descartes، a French philosopher، has considerable contribution on explanation، modification or، in some senses، correction of this theory. These contributions was to the extent that sometimes such thoughts are referred to as Platonic-Descartian dualism. The most challenging subject of this theory is to explain that how soul and body communicate. Descartes introduces the pineal gland، the small gland in the middle of the brain، as the «seat of the soul» where body and soul are interacting. The aim of this paper is to explain the role and the importance of pineal gland through the history of philosophy especially through Descartes philosophy. For this reason، at first the historical context of the importance of pineal gland is studied and then viewpoints of Descartes about the gland، based on his works، are explained.