Descartes's Meditations Quiz

Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy: Key Arguments

• Meditation One: The Doubt of Sense Experience

  • Descartes argues that dreams can be indistinguishable from reality, making sensory experience unreliable.
  • Sensory experiences have deceived him in dreams, causing doubt about their trustworthiness in general.
  • The lack of definitive criteria to distinguish dreaming from wakefulness means we cannot trust sensory knowledge.
  • External world certainty is questioned due to the possibility of dream states.

• Meditation Two: The Cogito Argument

  • Descartes, even in doubt about everything, recognizes the act of doubting necessitates a doubter (himself).
  • "I think, therefore I am" (Cogito Ergo Sum): The act of thinking proves existence.
  • Existence as a thinking thing is certain, despite doubts about other aspects of reality.
  • This is a successful argument because it's immune to doubt; any attempt to deny thought itself confirms the existence of a thinking entity.

• Meditation Two: Thinking Things are Essential

  • Descartes argues our essential nature is as a thinking thing, stemming from the Cogito.
  • He can doubt the physical world, but the act of doubting (and thus, thinking) remains undeniable.
  • This implies that consciousness, or the mind, is independent of the physical body, or body/brain.
  • This argument is potentially weak in that it has yet to prove the body is unnecessary for thought.

• Meditation Six: Conceivability Argument for Dualism

  • Descartes argues that if something can be clearly and distinctly conceived as separate, then it might be truly separate.
  • He can clearly conceive of his mind as non-physical and his body as physical; hence, they could exist independently.
  • This conceivability argument isn't necessarily successful, as conceivability in itself does not guarantee reality.

• Meditation Six: Divisibility Argument for Dualism

  • Leibniz’s Law: If two things have different properties, they cannot be the same.
  • Minds are indivisible, whereas bodies are divisible.
  • This leads to the conclusion that minds and bodies are distinct substances.
  • The argument's success becomes questionable with counterarguments like special cases of personality or mind disorders.

Ryle's Critique of Substance Dualism

• Category Mistake and Other Minds
  • Ryle argues the "official doctrine" (Descartes's dualism) incorrectly categorizes mental states as separate from the body.
  • He argues our understanding of other people's minds doesn't rely on a hidden mental realm; they are known through behavior.
  • His category mistake example: The university is not a specific building, but rather the community of buildings/services.
  • Similarly, mental states aren't distinct substances but rather ways of behaving or aspects of human functioning.