Summary Of Rene Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

In the second meditation of his Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes argues that it is possible to doubt the existence of the body, while it is impossible to doubt the mind. Following this logic, the mind must exist while the body may simply be a product of elaborate deception. He comes to this conclusion through relentlessly doubting every aspect of his existence while simultaneously assuming the presence of a “very powerful and very cunning” deceiver who “ever employs his ingenuity of deceiving me” (9). Some may critique Descartes’s conclusion by questioning if the mind can really exist without the body, what the mind truly is, or by inquiring as to whether one’s thoughts could also be deceptions brought about by the powerful deceiver. I will show that Descartes’s argument is unsound because of these objections and how Descartes creates many
Firstly, can the mind exist without the body? The way Descartes begins to address this is by believing that he knows his mind must exist. He comes to his conclusion by realizing that the ability to be persuaded, the ability to be deceived, and the ability to possess thoughts necessarily implies that there has to be a mental existence. However, none of the aspects of this definition of being pertain to the body. The body has no ‘thoughts’ to prove its existence, leaving it vulnerable to the evil genius’ deception. As such, Descartes claims that it must be assumed that an evil genius exists. One may point to Descartes’s claim that thinking has “no need of any place, nor does it depend on any material thing” (101) as a response to this objection that proves Descartes’s conclusion, but that claim does not truly answer the gaps that Descartes leaves in his argument. Stating that his mind doesn’t depend on