Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy

by Gwendolyn

Meditations on First Philosophy subtitled In which the existence of God and the real distinction of mind and body, are demonstrated is a philosophical piece by René Descartes first published in Latin in 1641.

The treatise consists of six meditations serves as the threshold of modern Western philosophy. In it, Descartes tackles several Aristotelian doctrines and questions its basic concepts. Descartes tears apart the Aristotelian concept that all knowledge stems from the senses and that mental states merely resemble them.

Descartes started his Meditations with the idea of skepticism. Then, he progressively showed the need to recognize senses and imagination as part of the mental processes. Descartes concluded that mind and body do not have anything in common. Our mind is made to think and the body merely extends our thoughts. Also, the perception of God is innate, which means it was there by the time we were born and must be put there by a Higher Being.

A number of philosophers find Descartes ideas acceptable although his theory on the mind-body link is still subject to heated debate to this day. A number of adherents to mind-body link believe that the mind greatly affects the body as opposed to Descartes separate function of mind and body and his assumption that the one could not affect the other.

The utopian society for Descartes would be one where the improvement of thinking, senses and imagination or, the mental faculties is encouraged. Being a rationalist, Descartes believe that clarity of perceptions of intellect is the best way to gain knowledge. The information derived from the senses merely helps us to live in a practical manner.


Posted in Previous Authors on December 20th, 2006

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