Human: Who was Descartes and what was his contribution to Cartesian dualism? Assistant: 
René Descartes was a French philosopher who was born in 1596. He was the first to introduce the concept of dualism into philosophy. Dualism is the idea that the mind and body are separate entities. Descartes believed that the mind and body were made of two different substances, and that the mind could think independently of the body. This idea was very controversial at the time, and Descartes’ ideas were eventually rejected.