Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy: An Analysis

In 1640 Descartes published his famous Meditations on First Philosophy through which he shared his personal reflections on the separation of physical and intellectual realities. By demonstrating the distinctions between imagination and understanding, Descartes is able to declare the mind separate from the body. Through logical deduction, Descartes makes a case for the presence of a higher, heavenly power. With new information from modern science, society contradicts his initial comprehension of mental and physical truths. Using the example of the wax, Descartes argues that the body’s senses fail the mind. To illustrate how the senses distract the mind from understanding, Descartes points out how a candle alters in appearance when burnt. The …show more content…
This alternative knowledge is geometric reasoning. Geometric reasoning, in its most basic definition, is the ability to reason truth through the ability to conceptualize objects in the mind. For example, Descartes proves the existence of a triangle because no matter how he imagines a shape with three sides, his mind will only interpret it as a triangle. The triangle is distinct and clear in his mind, so therefor it must exist. However, a chiliagon has too many sides for Descartes to be able to distinctly envision, because of his inability to conceptualize it, it must not exist (Descartes, 1640, p. 50-51). His ability to obtain truth through reasoning allows him to “be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever I [Descartes] perceives very clearly and distinctly is true” (Descartes, 1640, p. 24). Despite the effectiveness of geometric reasoning in proving the existence of finite beings and objects, it is incapable of proving the existence of a superior, infinite …show more content…
For if the mind exists and the body is yet to be proven they must be two distinctly different things. The separation of body and mind is also the separation between imagination and understanding (Descartes, 1640, p. 51). The body can imagine and dream through the senses, whereas the mind logically reasons understanding. Imagination serves no purpose in survival and reality; therefore, the body is not needed for the existence of the individual because it is unable to think and understand (Descartes, 1640, p. 54). Descartes is unable to define the body and therefore the existence of the body is questionable. The body could be nothing more than a dream. For example, the aforementioned wax possesses two bodies, and yet it is comprised only one substance, or artificial mind. The capability of a thing to possess multiple forms supports his belief that the body is separate from the mind, because no matter how many bodies an object or individual has, they have but one substance or mind. Under this logic, one could survive in an ethereal state without their body, in other words, an intellect that transcends earthly possession. Because the body or substance deteriorates, the body is a thing of nature, whereas the mind is of a higher