Final answer:
True, Descartes' dualism posits a distinct separation between the material body and the immaterial mind, with the mind being a non-material substance capable of existing independently from the body. However, modern scientific evidence challenges this view, suggesting that the mind cannot exist without the physical brain.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that human nature is essentially bifurcated between that which is material body and that which is immaterial mind as per the dualist perspective articulated by René Descartes is true. Descartes proposed that the mind is a non-material, thinking substance (res cogitans) and the body is a material, non-thinking substance (res extensa). This form of dualism suggests a clear division between the mind and the body, and it led Descartes to his famous conclusion Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am), implying the existence of the mind independent of the body. Despite Descartes' arguments, modern science posits that the mind cannot exist without the physical brain, challenging the dualist view that the mind and body are separate entities.
Furthermore, dualism faces the challenge of explaining how two completely different substances, the mental and the physical, could interact with one another. This issue remains a subject of debate in philosophy to this day. Descartes himself believed in the soul's existence prior to the body and that it was immortal, which reflected the dualist view that there are separate realms: the physical and the spiritual or non-physical.