Indeed, as Searle has often pointed out, there is not a single animal that knows why it exists. And we, who truly know why we exist, he argues, must pay the price for being so smart and capable. He says we should not allow ourselves to fall in love with our powers and our tendency to regard our minds as unique. We must remember that what sets us apart from other animals is simply our mind.

Discussing man as a «rational animal», Descartes said: «A rational animal does not in any way correspond to the conditions of man, since it is as superior and independent of him as his imagination is independent of him». Descartes considered the mind above the body and in such a way that it could exist without the body, although he did not want to make a specific distinction between mind and soul, as well as mind and body. In Discourse on Method, Descartes gave an example of such a way of thinking. He argued that the process of creating an object is essentially the same for creating an object in the mind and creating in the physical world. Descartes said that we should not think of the mind as a separate substance, as Plato would like us to do, but we should not attribute to the mind the ability to create the physical world. «The essence of this great whole, so far from being something absolute, is in fact a multitude of different things connected together by the smallest connections, but united by many small differences».

We should be divided into mind and body, but Descartes wanted to stick to the idea that the body is not a physical substance, as materialism claimed. We can think of the mind as an intelligent being or thinking object and consider that the mind has no material substance. We can consider that the mind is superior to the body in its capabilities. However, the mind has a material part of its reality. Descartes discussed the fact that «although we are in a state of contemplation, nevertheless, in fact, we are in a state of bodily existence,» but he made it clear that «all the organs of the body are still there and move in accordance with immutability. the nature of the mind or soul». Thus, the body does not cease to exist, and we can think of the mind as created from the body, which in a sense is. Descartes said: «The soul is not the only thing, but it is a substance that has intelligent powers that make up the body, which, again, is the soul».

To achieve his rational goal, Descartes rejected materialism. This meant that Descartes rejected both the idea that the body is a material substance and that the mind is separate from the body. Descartes understood materialism as the point of view according to which the body is a material substance, that the mind is different from the body and that the body has nothing to do with the mind. Descartes believed that in a sense, the mind is not a separate substance, but a substance that exists in the body. To say that the body is material, Descartes believed, means to say that the mind is not a rational thing, but a thing that can be controlled with the help of the body. In other words, the mind is a rational entity that can be viewed as separate from the body. In his Treatise on Method, Descartes said: «One thing cannot think of another thing independently». Descartes considered reason as one substance, rational. Descartes argued that if mind were a separate substance, then we could create ideas about other things and things other than mind. This would be impossible for the mind, because the mind is essentially a body. «It is necessary that the mind, as the rational faculty of the body, belong to the body; that it, and not the body, was the substance of the mind; that it is a material part of the body; and that he should be a part of the body, like that part of the body that consists of rational faculties».