笛卡爾的“身心二元論”的根據是:“Next I examined attentively what I was. I saw that while I could pretend that I had no body and that there was no world and no place for me to be in, I could not for all that pretend that I did not exist. I saw on the contrary that from the mere fact that I thought of doubting the truth of other things, it followed quite evidently and certainly that I existed; whereas if I had merely ceased thinking, even if everything else I had ever imagined had been true, I should have had no reason to believe that I existed. From this I knew I was a substance whose whole essence or nature is simply to think, and which does not require any place, or depend on any material thing, in order to exist. (6:32-3)”(斯坦福哲學百科)。我的看法與笛氏不同在於,二元的本質是“物質與生命”之別。而生命自身又生出了“相對與絕對”這兩個部分。也就是說,第一個“一分為二”應該是物質與生命之分;第二個一分為二是“生命的相對性與思維和意識的絕對性之分”。這也可以看成,“一而二”是物質與生命之分,“二而三”是物質,生命和絕對的分別。