Descartes First Meditation Summary

Aptly subtitled “Of the Nature of the Human Mind, and That It Is More Easily Known Than the Body”, Descartes tasked himself with using philosophical reasoning in determining truths of the universe and of his own being. Motivated to justify that which he has held to be true, and to use those truths to find answers for questions that he poses both of the truths themselves and of his own existence, Descartes became suspicious of even the most basic elements of himself. Therefore, he needed to explore one innate form that he could be absolutely sure of: his own mind. Descartes closes the First Meditation with a limited starting point, as he has just proven to himself that he must doubt everything that he has and holds to be true, including his
He revisits the individual characteristics of his own body, noting the limbs, unique qualities, and structure as separate from that which allows him to think. He instead argues that the form he inhabits “can be defined by a certain figure… perceived either by touch, or by sight, or by hearing, or by taste, or by smell: which can be moved in many ways not, in truth, by itself, but something which is foreign to it… for to have the power of self-movement… feeling or of thinking” which exists outside of that which allows him to reason and suppose of his own existence (206). This brings him to an understanding that instead of defining himself by his physical form, he can understand himself as “a thing which thinks… doubts, understands, [conceives], affirms, denies, wills, refuses, which also imagines and feels” (207). However, although he has determined that his own thinking is undoubtable, he has yet to prove to himself that he can believe in his own body, let alone other objects that could affect the
His body is considered, as he wishes to determine if he exists within his own mind as a thinking being or if he has been extended into a physical form. He then deems wax as an appropriate form to apply his premise to; as if he can think through the example of wax in relation to his own body, he can prove to himself that he does indeed have a body. As Descartes follows through using the wax as an example, he is able to identify that which tells him that it is wax. Noting that “all the things which are requisite to cause us distinctly to recognize a body, are met with in it”, Descartes parses through the physical characteristics of a hard piece of wax (208). He then observes that same piece of wax after it has been exposed to flame, and realizes that the physical characteristics have changed forms in accordance with melting. This observation leads him to wonder exactly what is contained within the wax or the idea of wax itself that makes it such. By stating that the “conception which [he has] of the wax is not brought about by the faculty of imagination”, Descartes posits that there must be something about the wax that allows for him to perceive of it through its changing forms (208). As such, he comes to realize that his own mind is supplying him with the knowledge