Rene Descartes Meditations Rene Descartes-

Rene Descartes Meditations

Rene Descartes- Meditations

It is widely known that Descartes' philosophy revolved around the issue of the division between the body and the mind. In the sixth meditation, Descartes deals precisely with the mind -body dualism and how he sees this separation.

According to the French philosopher, there are certain things that can be understood but cannot be imagined, and other that can be both understood and imagined. He takes this distinction as his main argument for the fact that the body and the mind can exist separately. Thus, if one can understand an object but not imagine it at the same time, as his example of a geometrical figure with one thousands sides, then the difference must be given by the sensuous perception. It is thus evident that the mind cannot imagine, as if it perceiving, an extraordinary object. However, the mind can understand the object by using simply pure reason: "If I desire to think of a chiliagon, I certainly conceive truly that it is a figure composed of a thousand sides, just as easily as I conceive of a triangle that it is a figure of three sides only; but I cannot in any way imagine the thousand sides of a chiliagon..."(Descartes). Thus, if the object can be understood mentally but not imagined, then imagination must be derived from sensuous perception. It is here that the great distinction between mind and body must be formed. The mind is the one that provides actual understanding.

To this example, Descartes adds the one with the piece of wax. He demonstrates that a man cannot understand what the wax is simply by perceiving its physical features. On the contrary, the wax can be understood when it is deprived of its psychical qualities and laid before the mind in its nakedness or in its essence. Descartes proves this by revealing how little there can be said about the wax from a mere physical perception of its properties, such as magnitude, length, breadth and so on: "I yesterday examined the idea of wax, I find that there is very little in them which I perceive clearly and distinctly. Magnitude or extension in length, breadth, or depth, I do so perceive; I have before remarked that it is only in judgments that falsity, properly speaking, or formal falsity, can be met with, a certain material falsity may nevertheless be found in ideas, i.e. when these ideas represent what is nothing as though it were something."(Descartes)

On the contrary, through judgment or reason the material can be very well apprehended. Thus, Descartes disclaims that the essence of wax or of any other material object can be grasped and understood through either mere sensuous perception or through the imagination. It is only the mind or reason that can tell us what wax is. His main arguments against sensuous perception only is that the wax is likely to change some of its physical qualities, such as color or form for instance, but we still know what it is. Likewise, the imagination cannot follow all the changes or the process of mutability a certain object is submitted to. As such, the mind remains the actual locus of perception and relevant understanding.