Rene Descartes Meditation Analysis

According to Descartes’ Meditations, the mind practically has the definite ability to think only. Anything more than this fact can be left to multiple interpretations that can be doubted. Because of this, Descartes introduces a list of capacities that a thinking thing can execute. As thinking is considered the only definite action, the capacities are the subset of thinking as an action. They create pairs of opposing forms of thinking that cover the whole spectrum of the human mind. These important pairs define humans and the ability to think as one and the same. Descartes defines thinking capacities as one that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, imagines, and perceives. The capacities he lays out are a means of thinking because they are conceivable actions of the mind. …show more content…
The first time Descartes mentions this is during the middle of the second meditation. “But what then am I? A thing which thinks. What is a thing which