Descartes overall objective in the Meditations is to question knowledge. To
explore such issues as the existence of God and the separation of mind and body,
it was important for him to distinguish what we can know as truth. He believed
that reason as opposed to experience was the source for discovering what is of
absolute certainty. The first meditation acts as a foundation for all those that
follow. Here Descartes discerns between mere opinion and strict absolute
certainty. To make this consideration he establishes that he must first
"attack those principles which supported everything I once believed."
He first examines those beliefs that require our senses. He questions, whether
our senses are true indicators of what they represent. By inspecting our
sometimes firm belief in the reality of dreams, he comes to the conclusion that
our senses are prone to error and thereby cannot reliably distinguish between
certainty and falsity. To examine those ideas that have "objective
reality," Descartes makes the improbable hypothesis of "an evil
genius, as clever and deceitful as he is powerful, who has directed his entire
effort to misleading me." By proposing this solution he is able to suspend
his judgment and maintain that all his former beliefs are false. By using doubt
as his tool, Descartes is now ready to build his following proofs with
certainty. In Meditation two, Descartes embarks on his journey of truth.
Attempting to affirm the idea that God must exist as a fabricator for his ideas,
he stumbles on his first validity: the notion that he exists. He ascertains that
if he can both persuade himself of something, and likewise be deceived of
something, then surely he must exist. This self validating statement is known as
the Cogito Argument. Simply put it implies whatever thinks exists. Having
established this, Descartes asks himself: What is this I which "necessarily
exists"? Descartes now begins to explore his inner consciousness to find
the essence of his being. He disputes that he is a "rational animal"
for this idea is difficult to understand. He scrutinizes whether perhaps he is a
body infused with a soul but this idea is dismissed since he cannot be certain
of concepts that are of the material world. Eventually he focuses on the act of
thinking and from this he posits: "I am a thing that thinks" A thing
that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also
imagines and senses. To prove that perception on the part of the mind is more
real than that of the senses Descartes asks us to consider a piece of wax. Fresh
from the comb the qualities we attribute to the wax are those derived from the
senses. Melted, the qualities that we attribute to the wax are altered and can
only be known to the intellect. Descartes demonstrates how the information from
the senses gives us only the observable, it is the mind that allows us to
understand. The results of the second meditation are considerable, doubt has
both proven the certainty of Descartes existence and that his essence is the
mind. Descartes having proven that God exists must now make some clarifications
concerning why God is no deceiver. The main question that needs clarification is
this: If God is no deceiver then why do we err? Descartes answers that we are
prone to make mistakes because our wills are infinite but our intellect is not.
The will gives us the faculties of assertion, denial and suspension of judgment.
The intellect allows us to perceive things clearly and distinctly. Like God we
have an infinite will, but we are imperfect because are understanding is finite.
Descartes concludes that because we are free we are responsible for our errors.
It is possible however, that if we use our faculties properly we will not assent
false judgments. Confident that God has created us such that if we perceive
things clearly and distinctly our reasoning will not be wrong; Descartes is now
free to explore the possibilities of material things and the mind body
relationship. In the fifth meditation the essence of material things is
considered. Before he begins with material considerations however, Descartes
feels it necessary to offer another proof for the existence of God. Since
Descartes has just demonstrated that we gain understanding through ideas, he is
able to continue with an ontological argument proving that God necessarily
exists. The claim that is the glue to this argument is that a supremely perfect
being must necessarily exist. If this is not the case the being in question does
not meet the criterion for perfection. God without existence is like a triangle
without 3 sides or a mountain without a valley. (paraphrase) A supremely perfect
being would lack some perfection. That taken care of, he turns his attention to
material issues, namely the body. First Descartes separates sensation as being
separate from his imagination because he does not have any control over it.
Doubt takes over at this point and Descartes must again face the same problem he
did in meditation one: the unreliability of the senses due to dreams or
hallucinations. To counter this Descartes concludes that our knowledge of
material things is based on our knowledge of God. He asserts that God has
created him with such a strong belief in the existence of material things that
they must not be false because God is not deceptive. By using God as his proof
for the material world, Descartes has left himself in a precarious situation.
Were it to be found that God does not exist the rest of his assertions would
subsequently crumble. Nevertheless, Descartes is satisfied with the progress
that he has made and is now ready to prove the existence of material things.
There remains but one question as we draw near the end of the meditations,
whether material things exist. To prove the existence of the material objects
Descartes draws on his previous meditations to find the answer. He believes that
material things can exist, if they are the object of mathematics. We can prove
the existence of these objects because we can understand them with our
intellect. There remains a question regarding our imagination. Descarte reasons
that it is not essential. The understanding is greater than the imagination.
Descartes assumes to have a body based on what his senses perceive. He begins to
explore this notion that he had previously dismissed to doubt. He inquires
whether his senses give him reason for bodies to exist. He comes to the
conclusion that they do because God has given us "a great inclination to
believe that these ideas proceeded from corporeal things." ( ) This proof
progresses into the nature of how mind and body co-exist. Descartes beliefs are
as follows: It is from nature that we distinguish other bodies and their
interpretation. We are inclined by nature towards things that benefit us. This
is for our own self- preservation. Descartes makes the distinction between mind
and body. He states that the mind is a thinking, unextended thing, while the
body is a physical extended thing. The mind is indivisible whereas the body can
be divided. It is the minds task to differentiate the part of the body
affiliated with a certain sensation. God has endowed us with these natural
inclinations to allow us self preservation. Descartes now dispels his dream
hypothesis because he realizes that wakefulness is the interaction of both mind
and body. He leaves us with the message that "we must acknowledge the
infirmity of our nature." It is Descartes hope in Meditation two that he is
able to find his first certainty. By use of the Cogito argument Descartes does
just that. Having proven his existence he turns his attention toward the essence
of his nature. As the title of the second meditation suggests, he proves that
are essence is of the mind and thus more known to us than the body. The Cogito
argument as it looks in the Meditations runs like this: "Thus, after
everything has been most carefully weighed, it must finally be established that
this pronouncement "I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time I
utter it or conceive it in my mind." (P.18) Descartes Second Meditation is
an attempt to find a truth that he can accept with certainty. In order to
accomplish this, Descartes has established that his postulate must be open to
strict scrutiny as to expel all doubt to its validity. By the third paragraph of
the meditation he has discovered such a certainty, the claim that "I think,
therefore I exist." What he is trying to say with this statement is that
every time he thinks something in his mind, he has proof that he exists. It is
not possible to think without also existing. This proof, known as the Cogito, is
Descartes first progression towards his goal of perfect knowledge. For this
reason it is important that we examine this proof so that we can have a better
understanding of its meaning. To evaluate the Cogito argument, we must first
understand it clearly. There are four key statements in meditation two that lead
Descartes to the certainty that he exists. Herewith is a summation of Descartes'
argument: 1) "Am I so tied to the body and to the senses that I cannot
exist without them?" 2) "But certainly I should exist, if I were to
persuade myself of something." 3) "Then there is no doubt that I
exist, if he (evil demon) deceives me. 4) "I am, I exist" or in other
words "I think, therefore I am." These claims respectively suggest,
that by denying, persuading, and being deceived; a certain faculty of thought is
being used. By thinking, one can be certain that he exists. Though the argument
may seem simple and straightforward, upon closer inspection this is not the
case. There seems to be some questions concerning the Cogito's interpretation,
the most important being: What is the first certainty that Descartes uncovers?
What perspective does he use to rationalize this certainty?, and how does he
back it up? By examining the inferential, intuitional and epistemic
interpretations, we can discover which interpretation of the Cogito was meant by
Descartes in Meditation two. At first it seems obvious that Descartes had meant
for the Cogito to be an inferential argument. Of the key propositions in the
Meditations all seem to have the commonality of thinking as their first premise.
Similarly the second premise and the conclusion seem to follow the same pattern.
The second premise posits the notion: Whatever thinks exists; followed by the
conclusion: therefore, I exist. To know something by inference, is to discover
something based on previous knowledge. In Descartes case, he has come to know a
metaphysical certainty, existence, based on a prior metaphysical certainty,
thinking. The soundness of this reasoning is good because know matter what we do
it is impossible to deny that we think. It seems simple enough, until we
consider that Descartes seems to emphasize that his first absolute certainty is
existence. Using the criteria for inference then, it is impossible that "I
exist" is the first certainty. This is a weak argument for in order for
this inference to work; Descartes would have to make revisions to meditation
two. However, since he feels so strongly of this first certainty, I am not
convinced that Descartes had meant for this interpretation. The interpretation
of the Cogito, maintains that it is certain because Descartes has intuited it.
Descartes idea of intuition is likened to a flash of insight. It can be seen to
be true, the same way we know that 2+3=5. He simply knows he exists based on a
direct understanding. With this interpretation, clearly the proposition "I
exist" is the first certainty. The problem of this argument is that the
idea of intuition is too subjective an interpretation to prove that he exists.
There is no way to replicate this procedure and obtain the same conclusion as
Descartes. The evidence for this interpretation is not strong enough to render
it to be the one Descartes intended. Having established his existence, Descartes
finds that his essence is the mind. He places a major importance on the
intellect. In further meditations it is the mind, through understanding, that
leads us to various conclusions. Near the end of Meditation two, Descartes
demonstrates how the ideas of the mind are more attune to finding knowledge than
are senses are. The point that he makes here is that only through the mind can
we understand the essential qualities of the wax. Melted a piece of wax exhibits
qualities such as extension and mutability. These are concepts that are only
clear to the intellect. The main point that Descartes was trying to get across
by using this wax experiment is, that if he can understand the wax better with
his mind, then it certainly follows that he should know himself better through
the same faculty. Descartes presentation of the mind body problem has given me a
new topic to explore. Is it the mind that rules the body or the body that rules
the mind. Where does one begin, and the other end? By using some of Descartes
methods I have attempted to see his arguments, and tried to come to my own
conclusions. The mere fact that Descartes found so many certainties in the
Meditations is surprising. The Meditations have taught me to be open minded, and
to acknowledge that sometimes we make mistakes. However, if we take caution and
use reason carefully we are capable of finding certainty.