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Descartes 2nd Meditation In His Term Paper

The confused state of Descartes in the "Second Meditation" helps to illustrate the point that the body is known better than the mind. The mind may never know or understand its existence, yet the mind always knows the body's sensory perceptions. The mind is reliant on the body. The body is not only first, but is most important, and the perceptions of the body are known to the mind regardless of the mind's ability to know anything. Descartes may or may not exist solely because of thinking, but he thinks solely because of the body. There would be no wax example without the body; no knowledge of the malleable wax would exist without a physical understanding...

The mind cannot conceive an existence without a body, and although the mind may prove existence, the existence it proves is one of bodily existence meaning the body is better known than the mind. Knowledge of thyself, that Descartes seeks in his "Second Meditation" is knowledge of the body that the mind has accepted to be thyself because the mind is reliant on the body.
References

Burnham, D., & Fieser, J. (2006). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved March 28, 2007, at http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm#H3

Descartes, R. (YEAR). Second Meditation. BOOK TITLE (pp. 255-263). CITY: PUBLISHER.

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References

Burnham, D., & Fieser, J. (2006). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved March 28, 2007, at http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm#H3

Descartes, R. (YEAR). Second Meditation. BOOK TITLE (pp. 255-263). CITY: PUBLISHER.
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