A Critical Analysis of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy

This essay delves into René Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, particularly focusing on his exploration of skepticism, knowledge, and dualism. It examines the meditator's claim of existence based on the ability to think, analyzing the concepts of dualism and the role of the mind versus the ...Read More

Running head: PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PHILOSOPHY
A) In the claim, the meditator has said that he will exist because he is able to think. In the
justification of this, he will focus on the various concepts of dualism. The fact od dream has been
conveyed by the meditator in a completely manner. He believes he can dream because dream is a
state of mind (Descartes: 40). He has compared the human beings to the mind and this is one of
the basic things about dualism. To some extent, it is justified that the body and mind are two
different parts of the existence.
Therefore, it is not at all logical to believe in the existence of a person just because he is
able to think. Other physical attributes should also be included in the course of his existence.
Rather, Rene Descartes has only focused on the mind. He thinks his existence will only depend
on his mind and his body will have no role to play in it. The human beings will only think about
the existence through the mental stages (Descartes: 40). It is quite sure that the body does not
play a paramount part in determining the existence of that particular being.
The meditator believes that this thinking process will go on to rely on some of the
cognitive acts. These cognitive acts will come like a series and create the overall influence on the
thinking process of these human beings. Rather, it must be said in this context that the state of
dualism might be true to some extent but it surely has some obligations raised by many critics at
different points of time in terms of its authenticity. They believe that the principle argument itself
is very much doubtable so it should not be considered as an authentic premise is establishing this
fallacy.
B) The primary and secondary discussions on the concept of existence by Descartes have
been very crucial in different ways, the deductively valid arguments and the series of individual

2PHILOSOPHY
cognitive acts form the basic premise for this discussion. This deductively valid argument has
stemmed from the fact of global forms of skepticism (Davies: 160).
Here Descartes has used the concept of foundationalism that means the knowledge
gaining process through the building like structure (Descartes: 40). The hidden agenda of
Descartes is also very significant in this research work. He has discussed on the aspect of
skepticism and makes them believe that all the cognitive resources will come from their own
minds only. On the other hand, the series of the individual cognitive acts has been rendered as
one of the basic components for dualism. This sense of dualism will occur from the different
challenges regarding the understanding of the philosophical arguments.
The metaphysical aspects are indeed very crucial to understand this view properly. The
deductively valid arguments will surely open the new doors for the research works in the
metaphysics and later on it will cater to the new findings in science. Thus, it is definite that the
deductively valid arguments are very powerful and assistive in the growth of the scientific
arguments (Descartes: 40). On the contrary, the individual cognitive acts are associated with the
impacts of dualism in the minds of the common human beings (Versfeld: 27).
Their minds are jammed with the senses and their acts will depend on whether they think
or not. Descartes believes that he will only exist if he thinks something (Reynolds: 47). It has no
connection whatsoever with the deductively valid arguments. These arguments are based on the
scientific premises and it completely rejects the dualism by all forms. The deductively valid
argument is therefore one of the most logical aspects when discussing on the human beings and
their existence (Shear: 65).

3PHILOSOPHY
C) The meditator is very certain that his thinking power will be very crucial to note that he
exists just because he has the capacity to think. He will establish himself as a being that is always
looking to think about various things in the world and prove his existence (Versfeld: 27). His
only purpose is to prove that the existence of the human beings will rely on his mental activities.
The meditator has also shown this as the series of the individual cognitive acts.
This clear belief regarding the existence is based on the values of the human beings. The
concept of dualism as propagated by Descartes comes again and again when discussing on this
argument (Shear: 65). The concept of dream has also been discussed by the author or the
meditator since he is of the opinion that dream is also a mental state. In this mental state of
dream, people look to perceive many things and they are ought not to be true. He also tends to
reject the idea that there are even hands or legs of the human beings.
He has expressed his doubts over and over again regarding the physical existence of all
the human beings. He believes that the human beings have only the mental presence. Thus the
skepticism is the only way how this view of dualism can be established. However, the meditator
is very much confident in establishing his view on the issue that his existence could be proved
through his thinking capacity only (Nolan: 10). The meditator is of the opinion that the ability to
think will directly imply that he is alive and he exists completely in this world. This certain
knowledge can be gained through the thinking of that person and it will justify his claim.

4PHILOSOPHY
References
Davies, Richard. "The Modes of Descartes’ First Meditation." Academic Scepticism in the
Development of Early Modern Philosophy. Springer, Cham, 2017. 153-180.
Descartes, Rene. "First Meditation." The Theory of Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary
Readings (1968): 40-42.
Nolan, Lawrence. "The Third Meditation: causal arguments for God's existence." (2014).
Reynolds, Christopher. "The Quest for Knowledge: A Study of Descartes." (2019).
Shear, Jonathan. "Meditation as first-person methodology: Real promise—and
problems." Meditation–Neuroscientific Approaches and Philosophical Implications.
Springer, Cham, 2014. 57-74.
Versfeld, Marthinus. An essay on the metaphysics of Descartes. Routledge, 2016.