Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Biobank for Translational Medicine: Standard Operating Procedures for Optimal Sample Management
Published on: November 30, 2022
[Where Descartes got it right: the implications for science, biomedicine, and public health]
André Luis de Oliveira Mendonça1, Kenneth Rochel de Camargo2
1Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Abstract:
The "received view" of Descartes has shaped the image of a dualist thinker who radically separated mind and body and thus laid the foundations for a "divided modernity". Numerous epithets have been applied to Cartesian thinking, all of which now sound depreciative: mechanicism, determinism, and reductionism, among others. This article contends that Descartes was not the type of dualist that is normally assumed. Based on a rereading of two essential works (Discourse on Method and Metaphysical Meditations) and a dialogue with the new literature on the theme, we contend that overcoming the "received view" of Descartes can shed new light on discussions in (and of) the collective health field and highlight the so-called expanded health paradigm (including aspects beyond the biological or physiological, such as the psychological, social, economic, cultural, and political).
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Biostatistics in Health Sciences
Biostatistics: Overview
Discrete variables are...
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Investigation of Disease Outbreaks
Microorganisms in Medicine and Therapeutics

