63DEUS EX MACHINARoderick Chisholm): the interaction of
mind and body is no less strange than
the causal interrelationship of events,
particles and fields in contemporary
physics, and that unless feminists wish
to embrace behaviorism or deny the exis-
tence of consciousness, some recognition
of the difference between the mental and
physical is unavoidable.
“Dualism” is the current term to
describe the view that the mind and body
are distinct, but this term was not used by
Descartes or by other earlier “dualists”
such as Plato and Augustine. Although
the term “pluralism” has other established
usages, it would be fitting to see Descartes
not so much as a dualist (embracing
two-ism), but as embracing a plurality of
kinds of things and thus (in metaphysics)
a pluralist. Descartes is the author of Rules
for the Direction of the Mind (1628/9,
never completed), The World (1634),
Discourse on the Method (1637), Medita-
tions on First Philosophy (1641, 2nd ed.
1642, published with the Objections and
Replies), Principles of Philosophy (1644),
and The Passions of the Soul (1649).
DESIGN, ARGUMENT FROM OR TO.
Some philosophers argue first that the
cosmos appears to be designed or that it is
the kind of reality that would be designed,
and then argue from that that the cosmos
is indeed designed. Arguments from
design can be found in works by Cicero,
Aquinas, Cudworth, Paley, and others.
DETERMINISM. Determinism is the
view that all events necessarily occur
given all contemporaneous and anteced-
ent events and the laws of nature. A short-
hand way of defining determinism is
that it asserts that there is only one possi-
ble future, given all events and laws in the
past and present. Some theists embrace
determinism of the created world but not
God, while some see God and nature in
indeterministic terms. Spinoza thought
God or nature (Deus sive natura) is
determined. Determinism is incompati-
ble with libertarian freedom. See also
FREE WILL.DEUS ABSCONDITUS. Latin, “Hidden
God.” Some theologians contrast the
hidden God with the God of revelation
(Deus revelatus). Some hold that God
must be at least partly hidden, otherwise
creatures could not act freely with any
kind of autonomy independent of God’s
sovereign power.DEUS EX MACHINA. Latin, “god from
the machine.” A device in Greek theater
whereby a god may be introduced to
resolve a theatrical problem, e.g., the
tragedy Medea ends when a god rescues
Medea after she has killed her children
and rival. A god would be lowered onto
the stage by way of an elaborate machine.
Aristotle, famously, lamented this artifi-
cial device.