Descartes meditation II Analysis

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Philosophy

Document 1

To develop the outstanding philosophical writing, Descartes started by doubting his own senses and imaginations, doubted his faith in God even though he was a Christian and became more skeptical about all his senses to an extent of doubting his own existence. What am I? Descartes argues that, unless you are certain of the knowledge through ensuring there is no place for doubt, you should never accept it. Whatever human beings should accept should be self-verifiable, unquestionable as well as unopened to doubts. Descartes begins by understanding that, if he has the capability to doubt which was actually what he was doing, then he must exist. He might have doubted the existence of everything else but he knew he must exist because he had the capacity to doubt.

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Since we do not have any other alternative to justify our existence, the process of our thinking can be an excellent foundation to prove our existence and who we are. It should also be understood that the facts still remain that there is nothing that can think without existing. Nature of human mind In the second meditation after Descartes argued that he is a "thinking thing", he goes ahead and outlines the nature of activities that any thinking thing should be engaged in thereby giving us a comprehensive account on the nature of human mind. He argues that human mind is something that can doubt, affirm, wish or does not wish, perceive, that can imagine as well as that has the capability to deny or accept.

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Sensory perceptions require the body and there is no doubt that human beings have sensory experiences. However, even though mind and body are generally distinct from each other, mind interacts with the body to make a union. Wax experiment Descartes tried to give a precise clarification of what the mind; "the thing that thinks" is using the wax experiment. He starts by considering how people can easily know a piece of wax from the honeycomb or bee-hive through their sensory experiences. In the experiment, Descartes believes that human beings can distinguish the nature of a piece of wax such as smell, shape, color, and size among others. He then places the piece of wax on fire and it melts changing its sensible qualities.

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Senses can be used to assist in understanding real nature of things around us, but the senses without the mind are not capable of determining the reality and truth because they are easily cheated. All the things that we can understand and know without any doubt are the things that we can know through both our judgment and thinking which comes from our minds. Therefore, the only most reliable and convenient way or authority to determine and distinguish if things are true or perhaps actual is through our minds and that is its nature. Generally, the example of the wax experiment by Descartes helps in understanding the nature of human mind in three dimensions. To begin with, all the thoughts about wax approves that mind exists.

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