Descartes' Meditation II

I. Meditation II 1. Beyond Doubt: The Cogito i. Cogito, ergo sum: "I think, therefore I am" ii. Can't reasonably doubt whether I am thinking; when I doubt, I am thinking iii. "I exist" 1) I wonder whether I exist iv. What am I? 1) "Sum res cogitans"; I am thinking substance (stuff/thing) v. I can't be wrong about what I am thinking 1) Thinking: perceiving, imagining, willing, abstract intellect (math) vi. "I see a table" 1) Sense perception (image in your head) to real table 2) "I seem to see a table" a) An incorrigible truth vii. Might be wrong about what's outside my mind viii. I CAN'T be wrong about what's in my own mind ix. Incorrigible ==> not subject to correction 1) Can't be wrong about x. Your claim is not about the external world, but about what is inside your mind 2. The New Foundation i. I can't be wrong about 1) The fact that I exist, or 2) That I am thinking thing 3) What I think or how things seem to me a) The contents of my own mind II. The Wax Argument 1. I may be deceived by an Evil Demon i. May not be any material objects 2. No proof of material objects until later 3. I can decide what a clear and distinct conception of a material object would be 4. My senses don’t give me a clear and distinct conception of material object 5. My senses tell me that the wax is i. Yellow, angular ii. Hard, smooth, cool iii. Smells like flowers iv. Tastes like honey v. Makes a rapping sound 6. Take wax near the fire i. All of its sensory properties change ii. After fire, 1) Brown puddle 2) Soft, sticky, hot 3) Smells gone 4) Taste gone 5) Liquid sound 7. Same stuff although properties have changed 8. Material substance conceived abstractly as i. Having shape, volume -extended ii. Being flexible, mutable iii. Capable of changes in location iv. Quantifiable