Descartes -- Meditations Six

1. Descartes -- Meditations Six Charles Manekin Modern Philosophy PHIL320

2. Topics of Discussion • The existence of material things. • Note that Meditations V discussed the essence of material things. Essence always precedes existence, except, of course, in the case of God. • The real distinction between mind and body. • Descartes’ Interactionism Modern Philosophy PHIL320

3. Review of Where We Are Now • I know that I exist, and that I am a thinking thing. I know that God exists and that He is perfect and a non-deceiver. I know that I make mistakes when I rush to judgment. And I know the essence of material things (the truths of geometry arithmatic. • What do I need to learn? • Do material things exist? • Is the soul connected essentially to body? • How does the soul and body interact ? Modern Philosophy PHIL320

4. But first – Circularity! • What is the “Cartesian Circle”? • How does Descartes answer it? • What do I think? Modern Philosophy PHIL320

5. Mathematical and Geometrical Objects • “Ideas that exist within me that cannot be formed by me…a triangle has a determinate nature that is not dependent upon me, or dependent upon my will. • Hence, these ideas are ideas of something that exists • The ideas are not derived from the senses. • Mathematical truths compel assent – when they are thought Modern Philosophy PHIL320

6. The Proof of God’s Existence • Whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive to belong to that thing really does belong to it. • I clearly and distinctly perceive that it belongs to God’s nature that He always exist. • Hence, God exists. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

7. The Existence of Material Things • Material things are possible, since I have a clear and distinct perception of mathematical entities, and God could create them as existing. • But imagination indicates that they exist. • Imagination: “an application of the cognitive faculty to a body which is intimately present to it, and which therefore exists.” • This stage of the argument deals with imagining the objects of mathematics. • Sensory perception indicates that material objects exist. • The immediate objects of my sensory awareness are my ideas (sense perceptions) • These ideas are produced by bodies. • These ideas resemble the bodies that produce them – though indistinctly. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

8. Descartes’ Proof of the Real Distinction between Mind and Body [A] First, I know that everything which I clearly and distinctly understand is capable of being created by God so as to correspond exactly with my understanding of it. Hence the fact that I can clearly and distinctly understand one thing apart from another is enough to make me certain that the two things are distinct, since they are capable of being separated, at least by God. The question of what kind of power is required to bring about such a separation does not affect the judgment that the two things are distinct. [B] Thus, simply by knowing that I exist and seeing at the same time that absolutely nothing else belongs to my nature or essence except that I am a thinking thing, I can infer correctly that my essence consists solely in the fact that I am a thinking thing. [C] It is true that I may have (or,, to anticipate, that I certainly have) a body that is very closely joined to me. But nevertheless, on the one hand I have a dear and distinct idea of myself, insofar as I am simply a thinking, non‑extended thing; and on the other hand I have a distinct idea of body, insofar as this is simply an extended, non‑thinking thing. And accordingly, it is certain I am really distinct from my body, and can exist without it. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

9. Arnauld’s Objection (i) I know that nothing belongs to my nature or essence except that I am a thinking thing. (ii) My essence consists solely in the fact that I am a thinking thing. (ia) I do not know that anything other than thinking belongs to my nature or essence. (iia) My essence consists solely in the fact that I am a thinking thing. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

10. Descartes’ Answer • Mind and Body as Two Substances Independent of each Other. • I know that Body cannot be part of (dependent upon) Mind, or Mind part of (dependent upon) Body because they have radically different properties. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

11. Cartesian Interactionism • Descartes claims that • Body and mind are independent substances. • Yet body and mind form a substantial union. • The doctrine of the three primitive notions: body, mind, and the union of both. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

12. The interrelation between Body and Mind • The attempt to give a mechanistic explanation of the location of body mind interaction. • The animal spirits. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

13. Getting God off the Hook Thus I see plainly that the certainty and truth of all knowledge depends uniquely on my awareness of the true God, to such an extent that I was incapable of perfect knowledge about anything else until I became aware of him. And now it is possible for me to achieve full and certain knowledge of countless matters, both concerning God himself and other things whose nature is intellectual, and also concerning the whole of that corpo- real nature which is the subject-matter of pure mathematics.' Modern Philosophy PHIL320