descartes sixth meditation
In his sixth meditation must return to the doubts he raised in his first meditation. In this last section of his sixth meditation he deals mainly with the mind-body problem; and he tries to prove whether material things exist with certainly. In this meditation he develops his Dualist argument; by making a distinction between mind and body; although he also reveals their rather significant relationship.Primarily he considers existence of the external world and whether our experience hold knowledge of this world or whether this knowledge is merely an illusion. He makes it quite clear how misleading some of external sensations can be. We are never sufficiently aware of subjectivity of our own thought and senses. The only thing we directly experience is the nature of our own ideas and we do not realise how our own appreciation of certain concepts may be very different from the objective character of the external world. Descartes takes a look at memory, imagination, hallucination, dreams, predictions, etc. which he calls our (sensory awareness) as these are part of the way we perceive the external world, he doubts at first that any of these internal experience holds any truth or existence. As he
And he compares the healthy human to a malfunctioning clock. He argues that sleeping and being awake can be very easily segregated; as when one sleeps (dreams), one does not perceive anything one could experience in the state of being awake. He accepts that the brain receives, interprets and replies all nervous information. An addition Descartes questions the origin of dreams. He very effectively uncovers his dualist ideas but he does not exaggerate or make them absurd as he also continually reminds us of the great importance of the mind and body relationship. This very clear concept leads him to accept his clear and distinct sensory experiences are a result of external objects of material nature. This problem might be explained as medicine was not yet so advanced in Descartes time and therefore many facts about the very close relationship of bodily state and physical sensation were not known yet. "The clock is destined by its maker"This agreement he says may hold some truth, still he states it would be absurd to consider an ill man unworthy of a healthy individual. Nothing one dreams originates in what one experiences when awake. is very sceptical he raises the problem whether any of these given experiences contain truth or objectivity at all. They are in a way a sensory extension of the brain. Right in the beginning of this last meditation he is already trying to prove the existence of external object, one way of achieving this is by recognising the distinct ideas, Descartes had of external objects, they were thoroughly imprinted in his memory, he realised that the concept of these ideas could not have originated from his mind. The secondary qualities represent the not so trustworthy physical reality. He adds to this that nothing can assist better to preserving the body than what the mind itself feels.
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