Cartesian anxiety refers to the notion that, ever since
René Descartes promulgated his influential form of
body-mind dualism, Western
civilization has suffered from a longing for
ontological certainty, or feeling that
scientific methods, and especially the study of the world as a thing separate from ourselves, should be able to lead us to a firm and unchanging
knowledge of ourselves and the world around us. The term is named after Descartes because of his well-known emphasis on "mind" as different from "body", "
self" as different from "
other".