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 |
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Second Meditation |
"Of
the Nature of the Human Mind; and That it is More Easily Known than the
Body" |
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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." |
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"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?" |
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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?" |
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Descartes Exists |
But
Descartes does exist |
"Far from it; I assuredly existed, since I was
persuaded." |
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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." |
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Existing? |
But
what exists? |
"But I do not yet know with sufficient clearness
what I am, though assured that I am;" |
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"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." |
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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." |