Philosophy
5: Critical Thinking and Composition
Pierce College
Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology
Lecture Notes for Descartes' Sixth Meditation
Rene Descartes' Meditations
on First Philosophy
Sixth Meditation: "Of
the Existence of Material Things, and of the Real Distinction Between the Mind
and Body of Man"
Quotations harvested from
the John Veitch translation, found in the "Trilingual HTML Edition"
of Descartes' Meditations, edited by D. B. Manley and C. S. Taylor
Passively Present
Descartes notes that some
sensations are passively present:
Ansto§
"And because the
ideas I perceived by the senses were much more lively and clear, and even, in
their own way, more distinct than any of those I could of myself frame by
meditation, or which I found impressed on my memory, it seemed that they could
not have proceeded from myself, and must therefore have been caused in me by
some other objects;"
Distinctness of the Body: The
body is experienced as being distinct from the mind
Mind, the thinking thing,
un-extended
Body, the non-thinking
thing, extended
Mind Body "Unity"
Unlike the captain of a
ship that sees a sea-monster chewing on his ship's hull, the mind has a
"certain unity" with the body "Nature
likewise teaches me by these sensations of pain, hunger, thirst, etc., that I
am not only lodged in my body as a pilot in a vessel, but that I am besides so
intimately conjoined, and as it were intermixed with it, that my mind and body
compose a certain unity."
Safe Conclusions
The existence of other
things are frequently safe conclusions
"Besides this, nature
teaches me that my own body is surrounded by many other bodies, some of which I
have to seek after, and others to shun. And indeed, as I perceive different
sorts of colors, sounds, odors, tastes, heat, hardness, etc., I safely conclude
that there are in the bodies from which the diverse perceptions of the senses
proceed, certain varieties corresponding to them, although, perhaps, not in
reality like them; and since, among these diverse perceptions of the senses,
some are agreeable, and others disagreeable, there can be no doubt that my
body, or rather my entire self, in as far as I am composed of body and mind,
may be variously affected, both beneficially and hurtfully, by surrounding
bodies."
Despite "Unity,"
Distinct
Note that mind is
un-extended and the body is extended
You can cut a part of the
body off, and it changes, but you cannot cut a part of the mind off
On Dreaming
"in respect that our
memory can never connect our dreams with each other and with the course of
life, in the way it is in the habit of doing with events that occur when we are
awake."
"if some one, when I am awake, appeared to me all of a sudden
and as suddenly disappeared, as do the images I see in sleep, so that I could
not observe either whence he came or whither he went, I should not without
reason esteem it either a specter or phantom formed in my brain, rather than a
real man."
On Knowing Wakefulness
"But when I perceive
objects with regard to which I can distinctly determine both the place whence
they come, and that in which they are, and the time at which they appear to me,
and when, without interruption, I can connect the perception I have of them
with the whole of the other parts of my life, I am perfectly sure that what I
thus perceive occurs while I am awake and not during sleep."