Rene Descartes on second meditation seeks to find something certain or at least establish that nothing is certain if he could do nothing. He begins by creating doubt “that all the things which I see are false”. He argues that the body, figure, extension, motion, and place are merely fictions of mind, then if so, what is there that can be esteemed truth? Perhaps nothing is absolutely certain. Descartes questions the senses and whether he depended entirely on them for existence, he is persuaded that all things if maturely and carefully considered, then ‘I am, I exist” is necessarily true each time it is conceived in the mind. This shows that the existence of humans or things is tied to the human ability to think and conceive them in the mind without which, no existence.
Descartes describing what he had known of the body, he argued that, he was nourished, walked, perceived and thought all which he referred to as soul which he had not initially considered or had imagined previously as being something subtle like wind, flame or ether spread on his grosser parts. Had he described the body based on his earlier notions, he says “By body I understand all that can be terminated by a certain figure; that can be comprised in a certain place, and so fill a certain space as therefrom to exclude every other body; that can be perceived either by touch, sight, hearing, taste, or smell; that can be moved in different ways, not indeed of itself, but by something foreign to it by which it is touched [and from which it receives the impression]; for the power of self-motion, as likewise that of perceiving and thinking, I held as by no means pertaining to the nature of body; on the contrary, I was somewhat astonished to find such faculties existing in some bodies”.
He proceeds and describes the attributes of soul. The power of nutrition and walking which could not be possible had he no body. Perception is also impossible without body. He describes thinking as an attribute of the soul which properly belonged to him which is inseparable from him. ‘I am, I exist’ is certain, as long as one thinks, should one wholly cease to think, then at the same time he ceases to exist. Descartes based on these argument the asserts “I am therefore, precisely speaking, only a thinking thing, that is, a mind, understanding, or reason, terms whose signification was before unknown to me. I am, however, a real thing, and really existent; but what thing? The answer was, a thinking thing.”
But then what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that is capable of understanding, doubting, willing, affirming, denying refusing and perceiving. The essence of being of things using the organs of senses ascertains the truth, that one can see light, hear noise and feel heat all cannot possibly be false since they are as a result of proper perception which in itself is nothing but thinking. But then are the senses essentially correct? Considering wax from the beehive, which by senses has distinct smell, sweetness, odor and a figure, size, hard, cold and when struck produces sound but when placed near fire, it changes, the taste and smell are no more, the color change, the figure change and does not, if struck produce sound (rather not the same sound), does it remain the same wax as observed using senses?
Since all thing observed by senses change, then the same wax remains but with a possibility of infinite changes which can only be perceived rather than been sensed alone. Descartes admits that he is anything but mind, that if he see the wax by senses then he exists and if by imagination he can determine the existences of the wax, so is he and he concludes that there is nothing more clearly and easily apprehended than own mind. It is therefore clear humans are all what they think or perceive in the mind.
Work cited
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/descartes/meditations/Meditation2.html
