The Human, the Senses, and God: Examining a Few Ideas in Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy
This 6-page undergraduate paper examines specific paragraphs from the first four meditations in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy. This paper examines these specific paragraphs in order to answer questions such as “What is the main idea(s) (argument(s)) of the paragraph? How does Descartes argue this idea(s)? What does initiate the arguing idea(s) in the paragraph? What is the purpose, or consequences, or conclusions of this idea(s) (argument(s))?” for each paragraph examined. This paper finds that in the first meditation, the Meditator compares disciplines such as medicine and mathematics, in order to show that ways of knowing which rely on the senses are fallible. In the second meditation, the Meditator expands on this concept by using the example of wax melting to suggest that we know with the intellect, and cannot rely on our senses for knowledge. In the third meditation, the Meditator debates the existence of God, concluding that God is perfect, and thus could not have been created merely in the human imagination. In the fourth meditation, the Meditator considers the ways in which the limited intellect and unlimited will produce mistakes in human behaviour and thought. In conclusion, this paper finds that examining specific parts of the first four meditations allows one to see Descartes’ repeated refutation of Aristotelian concepts as well as his frequent reiteration of God’s perfection, individuals’ limitations, and the necessary doubt which surrounds knowledge.
