Rene Descartes Second Meditation Summary
On the First Meditation, Descartes call into question his beliefs and starts to elaborate his thoughts again. He assumes that God exists and he is good and “the source of truth”. At the same time, Descartes recognizes that some persons will deny the existence of God and decides to grant that God is an illusion. As Descartes has no answer to the arguments regarding the supposition that God is an illusion and he is at this point by “fate or chance or a continuous chain of events”, Descartes supposes that there is a “malicious demon” that is deceiving him all the time to get trap in his thoughts and judgements. From this Descartes concludes that falsely he believes that has a body or senses.
On the Second Meditation, as Descartes mentions “these
are things which I have supposed to be nothing.” Regarding the human body. He supposes that all of what he thinks and imaging the result of this evil influence on his mind to deceive him. Descartes also mentions during the first meditation that through the senses he could be sure if something is real and true when he sees, smells or touches something. But at the same time, Descartes questions that while he is dreaming he does not have a body to see, smell or touch something. Therefore, Descartes says that he is not a human body.
On the Second Meditation, as Descartes mentions “these
are things which I have supposed to be nothing.” Regarding the human body. He supposes that all of what he thinks and imaging the result of this evil influence on his mind to deceive him. Descartes also mentions during the first meditation that through the senses he could be sure if something is real and true when he sees, smells or touches something. But at the same time, Descartes questions that while he is dreaming he does not have a body to see, smell or touch something. Therefore, Descartes says that he is not a human body.