Meditation VI: Overall Summary

The sixth and last meditation deals mainly with the proof of the existence of the physical world and the objects therein. Through looking at how mind and body interact, which faculties and impulses can be trusted and how, Descartes arrives at a position where the doubts of the first Meditation - although they are not completely overcome - are made manageable.

The Arguments:

The Separation of Mind and Body

Firstly, Descartes distinguishes between understanding (or conception) and imagination. We can conceive of things that we cannot clearly imagine (e.g. 10,000-sided shapes), and so the imagination provides us with less clear and distinct knowledge. What is it, then? Descartes concludes that it is the action of the mind as it turns outwards towards the physical world. However, since he frequently receives images and impressions in the imagination without his will, he concludes that the imagination as such is not essential to who he is.

So, mind and body are separate and distinct, allowing for certain faculties - notably will, understanding and all forms of thinking - to be associated with the mind, and other faculties - such as the senses and imagination - to be associated with the body. According to this model, what the mind sees clearly and distinctly as true must necessarily be true. However, once interaction with the body and the physical world begin - through imagination and sense experience - things become less clear and our understanding becomes more prone to error.

From Descartes's point of view, the mind exists in the body not just as a pilot in his ship (or, to use a modern example, the driver in his car), it is closer than that, for we feel all injuries to the body as if they were injuries to our true self (we do not check our body as a driver would check his car). However, despite this, the body is separable from the mind and can exist potentially on its own. This is due to the possibility of conceiving of it as logically separate (the conceivability argument). We can conceive of the mind as existing separately from the body, therefore, this is potentially the case (and they are separate substances). Thus, matter (what Descartes terms res extensa, from the Latin, an 'extended thing') is extended (has length, breadth, height), but is unthinking; mind (res cogitans, a 'thinking thing') is conscious and non-extended (it has no spatial dimensions).

Sources of the Real World

The sense impressions that we have of the outside world must come from somewhere:

• The first of the options that Descartes considers is himself, but since he is not aware of any willed act on his part to produce these perceptions, he rejects this possibility.
• Secondly, he considers God as a source, rejecting this also because this would be a form of deception on His part (and God is not a deceiver, as has already been proved).
• Lastly, he considers that the perceptions actually arise from objects external to his mind - which, lacking any other option, he takes to be the most likely explanation.

Natural Teachings

Here Descartes looks at what he calls 'natural teachings', or things which our own nature teaches us. Whilst some of these are probably true - such as that I have a body, mind and body are connected, there are external bodies, etc. - others are obviously false - such as that all apparently clear space is a vacuum, the Sun is actually the size of a penny, and so on.

His solution to this is to distinguish between natural instincts (such as hunger, pain, pleasure) and unexamined assumptions and prejudices. Descartes argues that only the former are really natural teachings, whereas the latter are bad habits of thought. He next considers the objections that even these natural teachings can lead us astray - as when we are thirsty even though an illness which we have makes drinking harmful to us (e.g. 'dropsy') - they are useful and well-meaning instincts. Therefore, he rejects the idea that nature is 'faulty' when we are ill, but rather argues that it is better that we should feel thirst when we need drink (and occasionally be wrong), than that we should not feel it when we need it. These natural teachings are useful, but limited, and we must therefore use our ability to reason in order to keep such impulses in check and override them if necessary.

Therefore, with these conclusions, Descartes comes to the end of his journey of doubt. He now trusts the senses to a certain extent, and where he does not, he feels justified in the power of clear and distinct ideas, and the fact that God is not a deceiver, to guarantee that he will not be systematically deceived.

Share this Page

Click on one of the icons below to share this page using any of the listed sharing sites (it inserts the link for you, so you don't need to add it manually). Let me know if any sharing sites you commonly use aren't here, and I will add them.