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René DescartesMeditations on First Philosophy
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1641A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Comprehension Through Duality
Duality allows Descartes to identify relational structures between opposites so that the whole can be better comprehended. To explain his understanding of dichotomy, Descartes states, “For from the fact that I cannot conceive a mountain without a valley, it does not follow that there is any mountain or any valley in existence, but only that the mountain and the valley, whether they exist or do not exist, cannot in any way be separated from the other” (24). Descartes argues that to know a mountain one must also know a valley or, rather, that the two are intertwined because they are opposites. Further, the two are so connected that it is only through meditation that they appear separate.
Descartes applies this understating to his investigation of substance or the composite of matter and form. Substances, he argues, are dualistic by nature, adhering to three major dichotomies: external/internal, particular/universal, and finite/infinite. This duality moves Descartes to assert that composites are more knowable than finite substances as they retain a level of objectivity. In the wax experiment, Descartes posits appearances as susceptible to change and thus deceptive. Objectivity, by contrast, is what allows for continuity amid change. Descartes appeals to duality again in his argument for the existence of God. The subject, which is necessarily finite, has had placed within it, by God, a conception of a superior being. Thus, another being outside of the subject must exist. Descartes concludes that if one can conceive of a being so great that one could not have invented the idea of it, that Being necessarily exists. Without a prior distinction between finitude and infinitude, Descartes would be unable to conclude that God exists.
The most prominent duality in Meditations on First Philosophy is between mind and body. Descartes writes that “there is a great difference between mind and body, inasmuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible” (31). The mind, which Descartes identifies with the soul, pertains to specific modes of substance. Descartes terms these modes pure mathematics. Contrastingly, the body pertains to the senses, which can deceive the subject. Despite being opposites, mind and body are intertwined insofar as the mind mobilizes the body from within, and the body alerts the mind to potential harm through the senses. Yet, because the accidents of a substance change, while the soul remains unchanged, Descartes states that the soul retains its immortality despite an alteration of the body.
Adhering to Methods
Descartes strictly adheres to a method in his meditations. Descartes works to strip away aspects of belief that he has blindly accepted. He states, “I shall proceed by setting aside all that in which the least doubt could be supposed to exist, just as if I had discovered that it was absolutely false” (9). Descartes first questions the belief that he is awake. He calls into question that he is seated by a fire and that his hands are his own. This type of investigation is called a thought experiment. Descartes proposes that he is dreaming so that he may investigate what it is to dream, the nature of dreams, and the relationship between wakefulness and sleep. Descartes ultimately differentiates between wakefulness and sleep, stating that dreams do not adhere to memory or a unity among experiences. This conclusion is only possible because Descartes entertained the thought that he is currently dreaming.
Upon doubting his existence, he writes,
But what follows from that? Am I so dependent on body and senses that I cannot exist without these? But I was persuaded that there was nothing in all the world, that there was no heaven, no earth, that there were no minds, nor any bodies: was I not then likewise persuaded that I do not exist? (9).
Descartes asks: if he is to doubt his existence, must there exist something that doubts in the first place? Even if there is a God who purposefully deceives us, He cannot deceive us on this point. Each time one proclaims, “I am, I exist,” they confirm their existence. Descartes spends the remainder of his meditations piecing reality back together in a logical manner. To do so, he must move from subjective perception, or the mind, to external reality. Descartes prioritizes the subject and subjective perception and then attempts to enlarge this framework to include the ordinary world of objects outside the mind. To close the gap between perception and externality, Descartes asserts that imagination is a faculty capable of constructing ideas of objects that have not been perceived by the senses. Lastly, the object-in-itself, or the objectivity within it, constitutes the perfect, unchanging essence of the object yet eludes the subject’s perception. The perceived object, on the other hand, only provides approximate truth. His method, termed Cartesianism, heavily influenced future philosophers.
Individualistic Meditation
The kind of meditation Descartes conducts is individualistic. To implement his thought experiments, Descartes isolates himself and even attempts to deprive himself of all his sensory experiences. His work demands a “mind wholly free of prejudices, and one which can be easily detached from the affairs of the senses” (2). Descartes’s philosophy becomes rooted in the subject. This rooting is further evidenced in Descartes’s positing of the subject’s essence as thinking itself. Thinking becomes the nature that the subject adheres to. This centering of the subject and prioritizing of the subject’s perception leaves an immense gap between the subject and external reality. The reader sees Descartes struggle with the reintegration of external objects into his meditations as things that can be known clearly and distinctly. While he ultimately states that composite substances can be apprehended, Descartes’s knowledge remains predicated on the individual.
It then becomes necessary to ask, can one purge their personal biases? And further, is it possible to deprive oneself of one’s sense experiences? These critiques of Descartes’s meditations are important insofar as philosophy seeks to question even its own methods. Descartes references this nature in the Preface, stating that he is aware that he may err in these meditations. He writes,
But the case is different in philosophy where everyone believes that all is problematical, and few give themselves to the search after truth; and the greater number, in their desire to acquire a reputation for boldness of thought, arrogantly combat the most important of truths (2-3).
Descartes is aware that philosophers sometimes make crude judgments or critiques that are unwarranted under the guise of searching for the truth. Descartes ultimately states that everyday life is unavoidable. One is often forced to navigate existence without the luxury of intense meditation concerning important decisions. He concludes that it is unrealistic for the average person to conduct such a meditation, so it is paramount that Descartes share his knowledge.
