Abstract
In the Sixth Meditation of his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes presents an account of sensations as mental modes arising from the causal interaction between two distinct substances, mind and body. According to Margaret Wilson, that the causal relation is instituted one way rather than another is at best arbitrary and purely contingent. In this paper, I will argue, contra Wilson, that there are important constraints restricting the scope of arbitrariness and contingency characterizing the institution of the causal relation. In particular, I argue that the causal relation between mind and body is in fact necessary within the restricted context of human nature, which determines the nature of the causal relation itself, and thereby places constraints on the sort of relations that can occur between mind and body.
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