Metaphysical Blog June Archive

Descartes and the Pineal Gland

Descartes, aside from being a well-known mathematician, is also famous in philosophical circles for many things like his view of the pineal gland as the seat of our soul.

This gland has been the center of attraction of a lot of psychics as they believed that the opening of the pineal gland means the opening of our third eye. In fact, up to this day this belief is still widely held.

But how did the view of the pineal gland go before and after Descartes time? Here's a timeline from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Link: Descartes and the Pineal Gland (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)