Reading Notes by Christopher Lay

Los Angeles Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy, and Sociology

 

 

 

Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy

 

 

 

From the John Veitch translation, found in the "Trilingual HTML Edition" of Descartes' Meditations, edited by D. B. Manley and C. S. Taylor, at http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/

 

 

 

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? 

 

If Descartes can find one belief that he can have certain knowledge of, he can then build upon that

"by casting aside all that admits of the slightest doubt, not less than if I had discovered it to be absolutely false; and I will continue always in this track until I shall find something that is certain, or at least, if I can do nothing more, until I shall know with certainty that there is nothing certain. Archimedes, that he might transport the entire globe from the place it occupied to another, demanded only a point that was firm and immovable; so, also, I shall be entitled to entertain the highest expectations, if I am fortunate enough to discover only one thing that is certain and indubitable."

 

 

 

 

 

"But how do I know that there is not something different altogether from the objects I have now enumerated, of which it is impossible to entertain the slightest doubt? Is there not a God, or some being, by whatever name I may designate him, who causes these thoughts to arise in my mind ? But why suppose such a being, for it may be I myself am capable of producing them?"

 

 

 

Descartes

is not his

Body

Notice that Descartes cannot believe that he has a body

 

Does that mean that Descartes himself does not exist? 

"Am I, then, at least not something? But I before denied that I possessed senses or a body; I hesitate, however, for what follows from that? Am I so dependent on the body and the senses that without these I cannot exist? But I had the persuasion that there was absolutely nothing in the world, that there was no sky and no earth, neither minds nor bodies; was I not, therefore, at the same time, persuaded that I did 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;"

 

 

 

 

 

"I will now consider anew what I formerly believed myself to be, before I entered on the present train of thought; and of my previous opinion I will retrench all that can in the least be invalidated by the grounds of doubt I have adduced, in order that there may at length remain nothing but what is certain and indubitable."

 

 

 

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."