Let us return to Descartes	
  
Consider the implications of his dualism for explanation of human action. 

There are two realms, 
the mental and the physical
and each has different kinds of explanation. 

The physical science explains the physical world


And the mental is something else- there we explain via interpretation. 
	  
Human actions caused by mental events, which are choices made with the soul. They
are not caused by any prior physical events. 

 

Many recent commentators who do not accept Descartes' philosophy accept this
basic way of thinking

One argument for Descartes' view:
	Human beings are different from the rest of nature
	we know ourselves introspectively
	So: human action must take different explanation

The Neapolitan philosopher Vico gave an early version of this claim
	We know human activities because we are human. To understand the human world
is to understand ourselves.