How did Descartes’s views on the mind-body issue differ from earlier views?
Before Descartes the views on mind and body were very different. According to the initial thoughts, the scholars agreed that mind and body were different entities. One was physical and the other abstract. Mind (soul or spirit), had a strong hold over the body. The body was just like a puppet, whose strings were in the hands of the mind the puppeteer.
While Descartes views on mind and body were quite different from the views of the early scholars. He agreed on the duality of mind and body situation, but differed on the roles they had. He believed that the body had a much larger share of work, than previously assigned to it by the previous scholars.
He argued that instead of an obligate dependent relationship, the mind and body had a mutual relationship. After him, the functions that were attributed to mind were now shared with the body as well.
He changed the long standing notion of study of mind, based on a theological concept and introduced scientific analysis of mind, which is made up of simpler mental activity. The result caused the shift in study of mind and body from metaphysical analysis, to a more experimental based study.