Descartes – Second Meditation
Second Meditation
Descartes determines that the essential nature of the “I” is only in thought. “I think therefore I am.” He says that because he is able to think it is the proof that he exists. He is not certain about his body and other things of existing because everything he knows to be true are only proved by his senses but they are deceitful because sometimes they mislead you to think that something is a certain thing when in fact it is another. Therefore he cannot trust his senses and everything he knows about body, shape, extension, movement and place are all illusions. However he knows that he “the I” exists because he is able to think.
In his meditation of the ball of wax, Descartes learns that what something is is not determined by the senses but we can recognize it using our senses. When he brought the wax close to the fire it started to melt and it became a different form. This was still wax but it did not look or feel anything of how it originally was. Therefore, just because the senses were not able to recognize the wax it does not mean that this is not wax, so the senses are deceitful. This only proves that he exists because he thinks because it was his senses that told him that this was not wax but in his mind he knows that the wax had just melted and it was still the same but in a different form.
