Descartes Meditations Essay Research Paper Descartes MeditationsDescartes

Descartes Meditations Essay, Research Paper

Descartes Meditations

Descartes’ work entitled Meditations, is a work on metaphysics in which Descartes hopes to achieve absolute certainty about three issues: the soul as “a thinking thing” distinct from or without a body, the belief that God exists, and the belief that the external world exists. In order to acquire absolutely certainty which can be applied to these issues, Descartes first lays a foundation of integrity on which to build his knowledge. The technique he uses to lay this base of integrity is doubt. He discards all of what he believes to be true or fact and instead chooses that if any belief can be doubted it is not certain, therefore making it unusable as a foundation. Descartes first jettisons any information, knowledge, or truths that are based on his senses. Here, he applies the “Dream Argument,” (152) where he states that based on the senses alone, there is no definite way of proving that you are dreaming or that you are awake, thus, remedying any truths based upon the senses unreliable and doubtable.

Deeming the senses as unreliable, Descartes then turns to why and how his senses are deceiveable. He begins to doubt something that “I have long fixed in my mind,” his belief that God is an all-powerful, good, power. Instead, he believes that God could in fact be an evil deceiver, who created him and fooled his senses. “I shall then suppose, not that God who is supremely good and the fountain of truth, but some evil genius not less powerful than deceitful, has employed his whole energies in deceiving me,” (153). If this is so, Descartes considers what could possibly be true then. Already denying his senses and body, he concludes that he exists because the deceiver deceives his thought. As long as he (Descartes) thinks, he knows that he is something. He comes to the definitive conclusion that: “I am, I exist, is true each time that I pronounce it, or that I mentally conceive it… But what am I. I am a thing that thinks,” (156). From this, Descartes concludes the famous philosophical statement, “I think therefore I am.” Descartes rationalizes this postulation by understanding that I exist because I can think of the concept of an evil deceiver. The evil deceiver can deceive us in everything, or senses and our thoughts; but to deceive us in our thought, we must have to be thinking. In other words, there would not be an evil power capable of deceiving if there was no one to deceive. Now, although he is not yet sure of the existence of an external world, God, or anything outside of his mind, the conviction of his own thought can no longer be doubted. This truth now leads Descartes to question his relationship between his mind and body.

With this truth that he exists, Descartes sets out at determining that the soul is a thinking thing, distinct from or without a body. In order to prove/disprove this truth, Descartes uses the only truth he has proved thus far; he focuses on the act of thinking and from this he postulates, “I am a thing that thinks, a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses,” (156). Descartes asks us to consider a piece of wax as a metaphor for the body. This wax in it’s original form can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, and heard if struck, similarly to a body. Descartes further progresses the analogy:

“But notice that while I speak and approach the fire what remained of the taste (of the wax) is exhaled, the smell evaporates, the colour alters, the figure is destroyed, the size increases, it becomes liquid, it heats, scarcely can one handle it, and when one strikes, no sound is emitted,” (157).

This forces Descartes to ask, “Does the same wax remain after this change.” Descartes answers that if he relied on his senses to determine the answer to this question, the answer would be no; because according to all of his senses, the wax in it’s new form is nothing like it was in it’s original form, and all identifying characteristics to his senses have now changed. However, he knows that the answer is in fact yes; the wax in it’s new form is the same wax that used to be in it’s original form. Descartes knows this to be true because of his mind, his ability to think rationally, and his ability overrules his senses, “… it is my mind that perceives it,” (157). This example, more than any others, provides Descartes with acceptable knowledge and allows him to conclude the truth that the mind/soul is a thinking thing that exists distinct from or without a body. The conclusion of the second meditation are significant because Descartes method of doubt has proven that Descartes does in fact exist and that his essence stems from the mind. From here, Descartes moves to Meditation III, and the notion of God’s existence.

Descartes sets out to see whether one can perceive or confirm the existence of an idea that is external to him, an idea such as God. Descartes knows that he is imperfect due to the fact that he has doubts and desires, is finite, limited in time and space. However, to know that he is imperfect means that he has to have some idea of what perfection is. Descartes’ belief in God is such that God is infinite, independent, omnipotent and omniscient, and created him as well as everything around him. His thought of God is that of perfection, and perfection is a thought/ideal which Descartes knows and possess