The Human Mind Is the Most Powerful Thing in the Universe.

[Voltaire2]

29. The problem with dualism and a remarkable woman.

Elisabeth, Princess Palatine of Bohemia (1618–1680) is most well-known for her extended correspondence with René Descartes, and indeed these letters constitute her extant philosophical writings. In that correspondence, Elisabeth presses Descartes on the relation between the two really distinct substances of mind and body, and in particular the possibility of their causal interaction and the nature of their union. They also correspond on Descartes's physics, on the passions and their regulation, on the nature of virtue and the greatest good, on the nature of human freedom of the will and its compatibility with divine causal determination, and on political philosophy. Descartes dedicated his Principles of Philosophy to Elisabeth, and wrote his Passions of the Soul at her request. While there is much to be learned about Descartes's views by reading this exchange, my concern in this entry is not to focus on its import for understanding Descartes's philosophical position, but rather to summarize Elisabeth's own philosophical views. Elisabeth seems to have been involved in negotiations around the Treaty of Westphalia and in efforts to restore the English monarchy after the English civil war. As Abbess of Herford (Germany) convent, she managed the rebuilding of that war-impacted community and also provided refuge to marginalized Protestant religious sects, including Labadists and Quakers.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/elisabeth-bohemia/

Her objections remain unresolved.