Descartes' Meditation VI

After knowing that the existence of such objects is possible. Descartes will use mental images as a proof, but first he draw a distinction between Imagination and Understand.

Imagination - is a faculty of that is directly accessible to the body, requiring no intellectual processing or conceptualization. Which therefore exist like mental picture.

Understanding - is an apprehension that doesn't really need or represented by mental images.

But this is not a proof. At this point, he has only shown that their existence (external world) could conveniently explain this mental process.

Rene Descartes reviews his premises for the Meditations (that anything can be doubt cannot be trusted) However, he view these arguments within a new context as after the Meditation I, he has proved the existence of himself and of a Perfect God now. Thus, Descartes jumps quickly to proofs of the division between the body and mind and that material things exist.

Premise 1: If I can clearly and distinctly perceive something, then it is possible for God to create it.

Premise 2: If God creates something to be independent of another, they are distinct from each other.

Premise 3: I clearly and distinctly understand my existence as a thinking thing, not requiring the existence of a body.

Conclusion 1: Therefore, God can create a thinking thing independently of a body. (From Premise 1 and 2)

Premise 4: I clearly and distinctly understand my body as an extended thing, not requiring a mind.

Conclusion 2: Therefore, God can create a body independently of a mind. (From Conclusion 1 and Premise 4)

Premise 5: My mind is a reality distinct from my body.

Conclusion 3: Therefore, I (a thinking thing) can exist without a body. (From Conclusion 2 and Premise 5)

Those conclusions create the mind-body distinction and it is also known as Dualism.

Premise 1: My belief in the reality of external world is grounded in a strong inclination based on my senses.

- External world is explain the mental images that we have.

Premise 2: This inclination is attributed to the nature in which God created me.

- Rene Descartes believe in external world not because of any theoretical explanation, but because God has the power to create it.

Premise 3: If independent material things do not exist, God is a deceiver.

- as everything in external world will become an illusion

Premise 4: God is not a deceiver.

- He is perfect being and the quality of being all good is included in his perfection

Conclusion: Therefore, independent material things exist and possess essential properties, as my belief is a product of God's non-deceptive creation.

After using these two arguments to dispel solipsism and skepticism. Descartes seems to have succeeded in defining reality as being in three parts: God (infinite), minds, and material things (both finite). Rene Descartes dedicated the last part to response to the possible criticism on his claim such as phantom limbs, dreams, and dropsy.

This is the end of the Meditation on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes.