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
I acknowledge also, that I have several other _Faculties_, such as
_changing_ of _place_, _putting on various shapes_, &c. Which can
no more be understood without a _substance_ in which they are, then
the foremention’d _Faculties_, and consequently they can no more be
understood to _Exist_ without that _substance_: But yet ’tis Manifest,
that this sort of _Faculties_, to the End they may exist, ought to be
in a _Corporeal_, _Extended_, and not in an _Understanding substance_,
because _Extension_, and not _Intellection_ or _Understanding_ is
included in the _Clear_ and _Distinct conception_ of them.
But there is also in me a certain _Passive Faculty_ of _sense_, or of
_Receiving_ and _Knowing_ the _Ideas_ of _sensible Things_; of which
_Faculty_ I can make no use, unless there were in my self, or in
something else, a certain _Active Faculty_ of _Producing_ and _Effecting_
those _Ideas_. But this cannot be in my self, for it Pre-supposes no
_Understanding_, and those _Ideas_ are Produced in me, tho I help not,
and often against my _Will_. There remains therefore no Place for this
_Active Faculty_, but that it should be in some _substance different_
from me. In which because all the _Reallity_, which is contain’d
_Objectively_ in the _Ideas_ Produced by that _Faculty_, ought to be
contain’d _Formally_ or _Eminently_ (as I have Formerly taken notice)
this _substance_ must be either _a Body_ (in which what is in the
_Ideas Objectively_ is contain’d _Formally_) or it Must Be _God_, or
some _Creature_ more _excellent_ then a _Body_ (In which what is in the
_Ideas Objectively_ is contain’d _Eminently_). But seeing that _God_ is
not a _Deceivour_, ’tis altogether Manifest, that _he_ does not Place
these _Ideas_ in me either _Immediately_ from himself, or _Mediately_
from any other Creature, wherein their _Objective Reallity_ is not *
contain’d _Formally_, but only _Eminently_. And seeing _God_ has given
me no _Faculty_ to discern Whether these Ideas proceed from _Corporeal_
or _Incorporeal Beings_, but rather a _strong Inclination_ to believe
that they are sent from _Corporeal Beings_, there is no Reason Why God
should not be counted a _Deceiver_, if these _Ideas_ came from any Where,
but from _Corporeal Things_. Therefore we must conclude that there are
_Corporeal Beings_. Which perhaps are not all the same as I comprehend
them by _my sense_ (for Perception by sense is in many Things very
_Obscure_ and _Confused_) but those things at least, which I _clearly_
and _distinctly_ Understand, that is to say, all those things which are
comprehended under the _Object_ of _Pure Mathematicks_; those things I
say at least are _True_.
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