Descartes Sixth Meditation

In his sixth meditation must return to the doubts he raised in his first meditation. In this last section of his sixth meditation he deals mainly with the mind-body problem; and he tries to prove whether material things exist with certainly. In this meditation he develops his Dualist argument; by making a distinction between mind and body; although he also reveals their rather significant relationship.

Primarily he considers existence of the external world and whether our experience hold knowledge of this world or whether this knowledge is merely an illusion. He makes it quite clear how misleading some of external sensations can be. We are never sufficiently aware of subjectivity of our own thought and senses. The only thing we directly experience is the nature of our own ideas and we do not realise how our own appreciation of certain concepts may be very different from the objective character of the external world. Descartes takes a look at memory, imagination, hallucination, dreams, predictions, etc. which he calls our (sensory awareness) as these are part of the way we perceive the external world, he doubts at first that any of these internal experience holds any truth or existence. As he is very sceptical he raises the problem whether any of these given experiences contain truth or objectivity at all. Since we never have the chance to stand outside our own perception, it is impossible to contrast it with the external world.

Descartes is hopeful to prove subsistence of the external world (physical objects located in space), and so he returns to a very basic stage and acknowledges the existence of minds as an immaterial substance and God. He then accepts that matter exists as long as it is not a projection of his own mind or God. As Descartes previously established the existence of God as a perfect being, he therefore has concluded that God is not a deceiver. This very clear concept leads him to accept his clear and distinct sensory experiences are a result of external objects of material nature. Once these corporeal things (objects of a tangible, material nature) can be considered as self-evident ideas, they can no longer be products of the mind or God.

Right in the beginning Descartes makes a very clear distinction between imagination intellectual thought. He states that intellectual thought is abstract and without shape, Descartes would call it e...

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...ares this mind-body relationship with a pilot in his ship, as they are two very close entities, although the body cannot exist without the mind, like the mind can without its extension.

Descartes sixth very conclusive meditation has similarly to the first very basic concepts. What makes Descartes meditations so remarkable is his methodological approach to his philosophy. He starts right at the foundation of knowledge building his own basis and thoroughly working himself upward. Even though some of his thoughts are slightly contradictory he still manages to make them plausible, and one can accept certain incongruities as one considers the time and social structure he was living in.

I believe the fact that Descartes returns to the doubts raised in the first meditation bring more sense to the rest of the five writings and in a way holds them together. He very effectively uncovers his dualist ideas but he does not exaggerate or make them absurd as he also continually reminds us of the great importance of the mind and body relationship. Most importantly he proves his existence and the existence of others which is considered as one of the main problems all philosophers are faced with.