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Question 1:

What does Descartes do in the Second Meditation?

A. Continue his method of doubt

B. Prove his own existence with absolute

certainty

C. Prove the existence of God with absolute

certaintyD. B and C

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We really are in the Dark!

• When Descartes ends the First Meditation, it

seems that he is in worse shape than when he

began:

“at the end I feel constrained to confess that there

is nothing in all that I formerly believed to be true,

of which I cannot in some measure doubt” (IP

207).

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But hold on!

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• When he tries to doubt the claim “I am

doubting” he actually ends up proving it! If he

tries to doubt that he is doubting he is still in a

state of doubt. Descartes cannot doubt that

he is doubting.

• “Without doubt I exist!” (IP 224)

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The Evil Genius?

• “Then without doubt I exist also if [theevil genius] deceives me, and let himdeceive me as much as he will, he cannever cause me to be nothing so long

as I think that I am something. So thatafter having reflected well and carefullyexamined all things, we must come tothe definite conclusion that thisproposition: I am, I exist, is necessarily

true each time that I pronounce it, orthat I mentally conceive it” (IP 224).

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The Basic Argument

• P.1 The existence of thought implies a thinker.

• P.2 Thought (e.g., doubt) exists.

• C. Therefore, there exists a thinker (who does

the doubting).

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The Axiom!

• After noticing that this truth—I think,therefore I am—was so firm and so assuredthat all the most extravagant suppositions ofthe skeptics were incapable of shaking it, I judged that I could accept it without scrupleas the first principle of the philosophy I wasseeking. (Discourse, Part 4, 18)

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Cogito ergo sum

(Principles of Philosophy , which Descartes wrote inLatin in 1644)

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Criticisms

• What, from [Descartes’] own point of view, heshould profess to know is not ‘I think,’ but

‘there is thinking’.... I think we ought to admit

that Descartes was justified in feeling surethat there was a certain occurrence,

concerning which doubt was impossible; but

he was not justified in bringing in the word ‘I’

in describing this occurrence.

 – Bertrand Russell, An Outline of Philosophy  (1927)

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Criticisms

• ‘I think’ is [Descartes’] ultimate

premise. Here the word ‘I’ is

really illegitimate; He ought to

state his ultimate premises in

the form ‘there are thoughts’.

The word ‘I’ is grammatically

convenient, but does notdescribe a datum.

 – Russell, A History of Western

Philosophy  (1945):

Bertrand Russell

1872-1970

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Question 2:

What does Descartes do in the Second Meditation?

A. Prove that a person called Descartes exists

B. Prove that the universe is composed of

two fundamental types of stuff: mind and

body

C. Prove that the evil genius doesn’t existD. Prove that I exist as long as I am thinking

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Who is the “I”?

“But what then am I? A thing which thinks.

What is a thing which thinks? It is a thing

which doubts, understands, [conceives],

affirms, denies, wills, refuses, which also

imagines and feels” (IP 225).

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Mind-Body Dualism

• The picture that emerges fromDescartes is that there are twoquite distinct substances thatare mutually exclusive:

 – thinking thing (res cogitans)(Descartes himself)

 – extended thing (res extensa).

(Descartes’ body)

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Automata Example (Med 2, 227)

• Like the judgment that the wax

after it has melted is still the

same piece of wax as it was

before it melted, it is:

“And similarly solely by the faculty

of judgment which rests in my

mind, I comprehend that which Ibelieved I saw with my eyes” (IP

235).

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Conclusion of Meditation 2

• Understanding is superior to imagination and

sensation. The properties and identity of our

mind are actually more clear and fundamental

than the perception of external objects.

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“Third Meditation”

A Proof of the Existence of God 

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What does Descartes know?

• At the beginning of the Third Meditation,

Descartes is certain that he exists and that it is his

nature to think: “I am certain that I am a thinkingthing” (Med 3, 70).

• But that is all he knows!

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Solipsism 

• Solipsism (from Latin solus, alone, ipse, self)—

the view that there is no reality outside of my

own mind.

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“Clear and Distinct Ideas”

“I am certain that I am a thing which thinks; but do Inot then likewise know what is requisite to renderme certain of a truth? Certainly in this firstknowledge there is nothing that assures me of its

truth, excepting the clear and distinct perception ofthat which I state, which would not indeed suffice toassure me that what I say is true, if it could everhappen that a thing which I conceived so clearly anddistinctly could be false; and accordingly it seems to

me that already I can establish as a general rule thatall things which I perceive15 very clearly and verydistinctly are true.” (IP 229)

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A Nagging Doubt

“some evil genius not

less powerful than

deceitful, has

employed his whole

energies in deceiving

me” (IP 208)

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The Notion of God

“I see that there is manifestly more reality in infinitesubstance than in finite, and therefore that in someway I have in me the notion of the infinite earlierthen the finite—to wit, the notion of God before that

of myself. For how would it be possible that I shouldknow that I doubt and desire, that is to say, thatsomething is lacking to me, and that I am not quiteperfect, unless I had within me some idea of a Beingmore perfect than myself, in comparison with which I

should recognize the deficiencies of my nature?” (IP234)

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Conclusion

• I am not alone in the world. Something else,

namely, God, which is the cause of my idea of

God, also exists.

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The Argument

P. 1. I have an idea of perfection.

P. 2. The idea must have originated from something at

least as perfect.

P. 3. That idea could not have come from me because Iam imperfect.

C. The idea of perfection could only have originated

from the perfect being we call “God.”

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The Rest of the Meditations

• God cannot be a deceiver (otherwise God

would be imperfect). Descartes can thus be

sure that he has a true belief whenever he

assents to an idea that is “clear and distinct.”

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• In this way, God forms a bridge that will allow

Descartes to pass from knowledge of his own

ideas to knowledge about the external world andget back in touch with his body. . .