Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his bodyDescartes, René
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes, René
Descartes, René, 1596-1650; First philosophy; God -- Proof, Ontological; Knowledge, Theory of; Metaphysics; Methodology
First therefore I have always thought that I have had an _Head_,
_Hands_, _Feet_, and other _Members_, of which _This Body_ (which I have
look’d upon as a _Part_ of _Me_, or Perhaps as my _Whole self_) Consists;
And I have also thought that this _Body_ of _Mine_ is Conversant or
engaged among many _Other Bodies_, by which it is Liable to be _affected_
with what is _advantagious_ or _hurtful_; What was _Advantagious_
I judged by a certain _sense_ of _Pleasure_, what was _Hurtful_ by
a _sense_ of _Pain_. Furthermore, besides _Pleasure_ and _Pain_, I
perceived in my self _Hunger_, _Thirst_, and other such like _Appetites_,
as also certain _Corporeal Propensions_ to _Mirth_, _Sadness_, _Anger_,
and other like _Passions_.
As to What hapned to me from _Bodies without_, Besides the _Extension_,
_Figure_, and _Motion_ of those _Bodies_, I also perceived in them
_Hardness_, _Heat_, and other _tactile Qualities_, as also _Light_,
_Colours_, _Smells_, _Tasts_, _Sounds_, &c. and by the _Variation_ of
these I _distinguish’d_ the _Heaven_, _Earth_, and _Seas_, and all other
_Bodies_ from each other.
Neither was it wholly without Reason (upon the account of these _Ideas_
of _Qualities_, which offer’d themselves to my Thoughts, and which alone
I _properly_ and _Immediately perceived_) that I thought my self to
Perceive some Things _Different_ from my _Thought, viz._ The _Bodies_ or
_Objects_ from whence these _Ideas_ might _Proceed_; for I often found
these _Ideas_ come upon me without my _Consent_ or _Will_; so that I can
neither perceive an _Object_ (_tho I had a mind to it_) unless it were
_before_ the Organs of my _Sense_; Neither can I _Hinder_ my self from
perceiving it, when it is _Present_.
And seeing that those _Ideas_ which I take in by sense are much more
_Lively_, _Apparent_ and in their kind more _distinct_, than any of those
which _I knowingly_ and _Willingly_ frame by Meditation, or stir up in
my _Memory_; it seems to me that they cannot proceed from _my self_.
There remains therefore no other way for them to come upon me, but from
some other Things _Without_ Me. Of Which Things seeing _I_ have no other
Knowledge but from these _Ideas_, _I_ cannot Think but that these _Ideas_
are _like_ the Things.
Moreover, Because _I_ remember that _I_ first made use of my _senses_
before my _Reason_; and because _I_ did perceive that those _Ideas_
which _I_ my self did frame were not so _Manifest_ as those which _I_
received by my _senses_, but very often _made up of their parts_, _I_ was
easily perswaded to think that _I_ had no _Idea_ in my _Understanding_,
which I had not _First_ in my _sense_.
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