Descartes’ overall objective in Meditations on First Philosophy is to question knowledge. To explore such issues as the existence of God and the separation of mind and body, it was important for him to distinguish what we can know as truth. He believed that reason as opposed to experience was the source for discovering what is of absolute certainty. In Meditation Two, Descartes embarks on his journey of truth. I find, in Meditation Two that Descartes has accomplished part of his journey, in that only the intellect perceives the material world.Attempting to affirm the idea that God exists, Descartes comes upon the notion that he exists. He discovers that if he can both persuade himself of something, and likewise, be deceived of something, then surely he must exist (17 – 18). This self-validating statement is known as the “Cogito Argument.” Simply, it implies that whatever thinks, exists.Having established his existence, Descartes now begins to explore his inner consciousness to find the essence of his being. Eventually, he focuses on the act of thinking and from this, he poses the question: “But what am I? [I am] a thing that thinks. A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines, and senses” (20). To prove that perception, on the part of the mind, is more real than that of the senses, Descartes asks us to consider a piece of wax fresh from the comb (21). The qualities we attribute to the wax are those derived from the senses. When melted, the qualities that we attribute to the wax are altered and can only be known to the intellect. It is the intellect that determines that although the appearance of the wax has changed, it remains the same wax (21). Here Descartes demonstrates that the information from the senses give us only the observable. It is the intellect that perceives the physical ever-changing world. A scepitc might pose the argum...
