Philosophy 5: Critical Thinking and Composition
Pierce College
Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology
Lecture Notes for
Descartes' Second Meditation
Rene Descartes' Meditations
on First Philosophy
Second Meditation: "Of
the Nature of the Human Mind; and That it is More Easily Known than the
Body"
Certainty
If all of my thoughts
could be the product of an evil genie, is there anything of which I can be
certain?
Descartes is not his Body
Notice that Descartes
cannot believe that he has a body
Does that mean that
Descartes himself does not exist?
Descartes
Exists But
Descartes does exist "Far
from it; I assuredly existed, since I was persuaded."
To Be To
be deceived, is to exist
"But there is I
know not what being, who is possessed at once of the highest power and the
deepest cunning, who is constantly employing all his ingenuity in deceiving me.
Doubtless, then, I exist, since I am deceived; and, let him deceive me as he
may, he can never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I shall be
conscious that I am something. So that it must, in fine, be maintained, all
things being maturely and carefully considered, that this proposition (pronunciatum ) I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time
it is expressed by me, or conceived in my mind."
Existing?
But what exists?
"But I do not yet
know with sufficient clearness what I am, though assured that I am;"
The Body?
Since he can doubt the
existence of his body, he can't be sure that what exists is his body
"But [as to myself,
what can I now say that I am], since I suppose there exists an extremely
powerful, and, if I may so speak, malignant being, whose whole endeavors are
directed toward deceiving me? Can I affirm that I possess any one of all those
attributes of which I have lately spoken as belonging to the nature of body?
After attentively considering them in my own mind, I find none of them that can
properly be said to belong to myself."