Descartes Modes Of Consciousness Essay

After Descartes confirm that his is a “thinking conscious thing” in Meditation I, he moves on to examine the idea of the cause of his existence. Descartes begins Meditation III by turning away his senses from the object. He believes that the things he perceives with his sense exist within him as modes of thinking and can be doubtful. Descartes believes, “All the clearly and distinctly apprehended is true.” However, in the past he had perceived such things as earth, the sky, and the stars with certain and distinct perception which later he discovered were in doubt. Descartes moves on to categorizing his thoughts into two categories to distinguish between truth and falsity. He classifies them as idea: “man, or a chimera, or the sky, or an angel, …show more content…
Not dependent on will and presented against his will (example heat produced within me- fire). Resemblance between an idea and object. Natural light. I possess some power not sufficient enough Capable of producing idea without the aid of external objects (example dream). Great difference between the object and the ideas (example Sun). Sufficiently prove from blind impulse existence of certain things different from himself (senses) convey ideas into his mind and impressed it with their likenesses. If ideas are taken as certain modes of consciousness. God has more objective reality than those finite substances are represented. Manifest by the natural light that there must be as much be reality… What is cannot be produced by what it is not but likewise that which contains in itself more reality cannot be the effect of less perfect. Formal reality (Example Stone & Heat). Descartes argument is that if one meditates correctly than the mediator will be enlightened with the answer which invariably leads him or her to god. This reasoning of Descartes is false because the environment at the time when he opined was one where the Catholic Church was powerful. People opposing the church at the time paid their discontent with humiliation, imprisonment and even life, so the atmosphere that lingered at the time was not of free will, at least when it came to theological discussion in the