creates errors. The will must be restrained or limited to choosing only those
objects which are fully understood by the intellect. Clear and distinct ideas
are necessarily true. These ideas move the will to action when the ideas
reside in the intellect. Descartes asserts that the great clarity of the
concept of his own existence residing in the intellect moved his will to
accept this truth.
Whenever any idea is lacking clarity or distinction it is necessary to
restrain the will from judging the idea as either true or idea until such time
that the idea may become clear and distinct false. The individual must assert
a state of doubt regarding the Descartes concludes that the action by which he
abstains from judgment of an unclear idea is correct. Failure on his part to
limit his will opens the door to possible error.
Descartes concludes this meditation by asserting that any errors that he
accepted in the past were the result of his own imperfections and limitations.
He cannot complain or blame anyone else for those errors which were the result
of his own choosing. He possessed always the power to restrain his will. He
had the advantage of obtaining clear and distinct knowledge. This knowledge
would incline his will to choose the right act or object. In addition, he
possessed the resolution to suspend all judgment whenever a truth was not
clearly known to him.
Meditation V
This meditation examines the nature of matter. Descartes analyzes his
idea of matter and reasserts his ontological proof for the existence of God.
Descartes declares that he will abandon the important questions regarding
the nature of God and the nature of the human mind for the moment. In this
meditation he undertakes the question of the certainty of his knowledge of
material objects.
He proceeds by examining his conscious ideas regarding corporeal nature
in order to ascertain which of these ideas are clear and distinct. Because
clear and distinct ideas proceed from God, they may be accepted upon all
occasions as truth.
Descartes affirms that he can imagine distinctly the characteristic of
quantity which is called continuous in the philosophical sense, when he
reflects upon the idea of matter. In addition, he can imagine the extension of
the material object with its correlate length, breadth, and depth.
Furthermore, it is clear to him that he can enumerate all the many attributes
of matter. These attributes constitute size, figure, situations, and local
motions. Each motion, he asserts, can be assigned certain degrees of duration.
Therefore, Descartes accounts for the phenomena of time.
Continuing his analysis, introspectively regarding his ideas concerning
matter, Descartes asserts that all material objects contain a definite nature.
There is a determined form or essence to each object. This essence is
immutable and eternal. For instance, he can formulate a clear and distinct
idea of a triangle. The triangle possesses a distinct form or essence. My
knowledge of this essence proceeds from my reason alone, asserts Descartes.
Obviously he can never sense an essence. The form is abstracted through the
intellectual processes of the mind. Since the idea in the mind is both clear
and distinct, he knows it is a true idea of material reality. Material objects
must therefore exist. The qualities which he imputes to material objects must
similarly exist.
Descartes demonstrates the existence of God in the same manner. He has an
idea in his mind of a perfect God. This is a clear and distinct idea. Because
the clear ideas are true, he may proceed with an analysis of the concept of
perfection. A thing cannot be perfect if it is merely imagined in his mind. A
perfect object is truly perfect only when it includes the attribute of
existence. Therefore, the idea of a perfect God necessarily includes
existence. Hence, God exists.
Having demonstrated the existence of God to his own satisfaction,
Descartes uses this knowledge to strengthen his affirmation that material
objects have a real existence. It is evident that if material objects had no
real existence and I possessed a clear and distinct idea of their existence,
God would be guilty of deception. All clear and distinct ideas proceed from
God. However, God is perfect and cannot possess any imperfection. We would be
forced to assume He was imperfect if he deceived us into believing the clear
and distinct idea regarding the existence of material objects. Therefore, the
existence of a perfect God insures our belief that material objects truly
exist as our clear and distinct ideas reveal.
Descartes anticipates several possible objections to his position. It
might be argued that there is a real distinction between essence and
existence. Hence, my idea of the essence of a perfect God does not include the
concept of existence. Descartes replies that in God essence is existence.
Existence is the supreme perfection and can never be separated from essence.
Since essence and existence are one, the argument has no weight.
Another argument might be proposed from the possibility that Descartes
cannot be certain that his analysis of corporeal nature does not proceed from
a dream state. In fact, what he considers material might be pure illusion.
Descartes replies that it is irrelevant whether he is dreaming or awake. He
still has a clear and distinct idea in his mind. Clear and distinct ideas are
necessarily true. Consequently, his idea of material nature must be true.
Comment:
When Descartes reflected upon the nature of intuition, he evolved his
criteria of truth. An object is truthful when the idea of it in the mind is
clear and distinct. An idea is clear when the concept stimulates the will to
accept it as true. This is a forceful stimulation. An idea is distinct when
the concept is so precise and so different from all other ideas that the will
is moved and the intellect is forced to comprehend it.
Meditation VI
In this, the final meditation, Descartes continues his demonstration of
the validity of his idea of the existence of material reality. He finally
discusses the difference between the soul and the body in man.
Summary.
While his ideas regarding material things must certainly be accepted as
true, Descartes wonders if material things have a real existence independently
of his ideas. Although he is more certain regarding the idea of his own
existence and the existence of God, Descartes believes that it is certain that
there is a material existence. The fact that mathematics describes material
objects with clear and distinct ideas supports the fact of the objective
existence of material reality.
Descartes begins his intellectual demonstration of the certainty of
material existence by distinguishing between the imagination and intellection
or conception. It is possible for him to imagine the existence of a triangle
or even a pentagon. Through his imagination he is able to conceive a picture
of three sides or another picture of five sides. However, he asserts it is
impossible for his to imagine a chiliagon, which is a thousand-sided figure.
Although he cannot imagine a chiliagon, he can conceive it intellectually.
Evidently there is a special effort of the human mind which adds to the action
of imagination. This suggests to Descartes that imagination indicates the
mere probability of material existence while intellection may infer the
necessity of material existence. It is not possible to make a necessary
inference of corporeal existence from imagination because intellection is
necessary to the act of imagination.
Proceeding further, Descartes recalls many of the concepts which he
believed were true in the past upon the basis of sense information alone. It
is his intention to examine the reasons for doubting the existence of these
things in order to inquire into those ideas he ought to accept as clearly
and distinctly true.
In the past Descartes asserts that he believed that he had no
knowledge unless it proceeded through the senses. As a result, his ideas were
lacking in clarity and distinction. Such a belief leads inevitably to
skepticism and complete doubt of everything.
It was natural for him to accept the erroneous belief that knowledge
proceeded through the senses. His first perception indicates that he
possesses a head, hands, feet, composing a material body. His sensations,
further indicated that he enjoyed pleasure and suffered pain. He experienced
sensually the variety of passions such as joy, sadness, and anger. These
sensations occur through no deliberation or act of his will. They appear
involuntarily and therefore suggest the existence of an outside cause. Yet
Descartes asserts that it is not possible to affirm the existence of material
objects which exist independently of himself with clear and distinct truths.
As he grew older and acquired many more experiences, Descartes realized
the weaknesses inherent in thinking that material reality exists as a result
of sense knowledge alone. With increasing experiences, Descartes’ faith in the
validity of sense knowledge weakened by degrees. It was apparent to him that
the same object appeared differently upon separate occasions when sensed. For
instance, a tower might appear round when viewed on one occasion and again
seem square when inspected from another vantagepoint upon a different
occasion. It is evident that sense information leads to errors in human
judgment.
If he were to depend upon sense knowledge alone, it would be impossible
for him to determine whether or not he was asleep or awake. The same senses
present a reality to the dreaming mind that is pure illusion, but that
indicate extra-mental reality to the awakened mind. How then can anyone be
certain as to the existence of material reality? Although my sense impressions
are independent of my will, Descartes states, I cannot draw the conclusion
that what senses reputedly represent has real existence. Descartes believes
that he cannot be certain that his sensation proceeds from a sensed object.
Nor can he be certain that the object exists in reality as the senses report
it.
At present, Descartes asserts that he knows clearly that he was produced
by God as a thinking being. With the certain knowledge of his own thinking
existence, he began to know himself better and to recognize the Author of his
existence.
Descartes declares that he possesses a passive faculty by which he is
enabled to receive sense impressions. This suggests the presence of an active
faculty existing independently of his mind. The active faculty produces the
images which are received in my mind. Now, this active faculty must be either
God or some object existing independently of my mind. Descartes affirms that
it could never be God. Sense knowledge is frequently erroneous, and
obviously God cannot be the source of error. Therefore, he concludes that
these ideas arise from the presence of a corporeal object which exists in
reality.
There are some material objects which are particular in nature. For
example, objects such as the sun are not so clearly understood. Descartes
asserts that the source of belief resides in God. God cannot deceive because
deception is an imperfection. Because of His perfect nature, God presents
ideas that are clear and distinct to the mind. Consequently, we ought to
accept these ideas as true. There exists, therefore, a material reality
composed of material and at times corporeal existence. Furthermore, God is the
cause of nature and nature teaches one that material reality exists. Nature
teaches Descartes that he possesses a material body. The feelings of hunger,
thirst, and pain are real and exist because he has a material body. Evidently
the mind is not the source of hunger. Therefore we ought to accept the
evidence of material existence which nature dictates.
Descartes believes that he is lodged in his body as a pilot lives in a
ship. As a result, his mind and his body compose a certain type of unity. The
feelings he experiences, such as those that evoke pleasure and pain, are a
confusing mode of thinking which results from the interaction of the mind with
the body. The needs of the body exist because of the materialistic and
mechanical nature of the body. These are known by the mind.
Nature teaches that other bodies exist. It is apparent that they exist
from the interaction between his body and other material bodies. Some material
objects are a source of pleasure and other objects represent a source of pain
to the body. Although nature may lead man to desire the wrong thing, nature is
never the cause of error. Error resides in human judgment. For instance,
nature may lead one to desire poisoned food. Nature impels one to desire this
food because of the agreeable taste of food, not because there is poison in
the food. It is human judgment that determines whether or not the food ought
to be taken. Therefore, neither nature nor our bodies deceive us.
There are enormous differences between the mind and the body. The mind of
man is not divisible. The body may lose one of its parts, such as a foot, but
will continue to function. However, the mind may never be diminished. The mind
may receive sense impressions from the brain, and as a result act in its
thought processes with unity. It does not receive impressions directly from
the separate parts of the body.
Descartes asserts his clear conviction that he is a thinking being and
therefore spiritual in nature. He is therefore distinct in kind from the
material nature of his body. His mind inhabits the body. Because the mind
must interact with the body, it is understandable that errors might be
possible due to the weakness and imperfection of such a union. Realizing this
imperfection places the mind on guard against the possibility of error. The
importance of restraining the will to move only towards those ideas that are
clear and distinct is imperative if we are to avoid error.
Comment:
Descartes affirms that the nature or essence of matter is extension. The
essence of mind is thinking. Consequently, the two realities exist. Both are
different from each other in kind. This position of metaphysical dualism is
central to the question of man’s nature.
Since the mind and the body are distinct in kind, the problem arises
regarding the interaction of the two. How is it possible for an immaterial
substance to come into contact with a material substance? Descartes affirms
simply that they do.
The statement of Descartes that he inhabits his body like a pilot in a
vessel is revealing in the light of the above question. The body is
strictly a mechanical and machine-like substance. Its functions are entirely
different from those of the spirit. The spirit is synonymous with mind. The
purposes of this mind are unique. The mind serves as the director of the body.
It functions as the intellectual agent of the body. However, the purpose of the spirit or mind is not limited to any functional operations of a united
body and spirit. The mind is the source of one’s individual ego or identity.
This ego is distinct from the spirit of the infinite ego which is God.
Therefore, another dualism exists in Descartes’ view. This latter dualism
distinguishes Descartes from the metaphysical view of Hegel.
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