Descartes Sixth Meditation

Edward Leung-Second Assignment

In Descartes sixth meditation, he defends the dualist perspective when he gives an argument that supports the dualist perspective. The argument that he gives us states that he can conceive of the idea of existing without his body, and since he can conceive of the idea that he can exist without his body, then it is theoretically possible for him to be in existence without a body, therefore it can be concluded that it is theoretically possible for the mind/himself to exist without the body. This argument that he gives us is known today as the conceivability argument.

The first premises of his argument are based on the fact that Descartes believes that his mind or his being as a “thinking thing”, but not an “extended thing”, that is connected to his body, which is an “extended thing” and not a “thinking thing”. Since his mind is only connected to his body, and his mind is distinct from his body, he gives us the argument that he can exist without his body since he is certain that his mind is very distinct from his body. The second premise of this argument is based heavily on the first premise that Descartes has given us. Since Descartes has the idea that he can exist or his mind can exist without his body, then it is theoretically/conceptually possible for him to exist without his body. So his argument draws on a logical assumption or conclusion that it is theoretically possible for him to exist without his body.

A reply against Descartes conceivability argument is given by materialists. The reply that the materialist gives us is that, there is no reason to believe Descartes first premise. They ask us to try to picture our mind that is out of the body. This in, truth is near impossible if not impossible. People have stated that they have had out-of-body experiences, that try to support this argument by saying that they existed outside their body, but in retrospect, most people are simply referring to the facts that the have gathered and pieced together a series of events to fill in the blanks. Another reply that I have heard in class is that trying to picture the mind without a body is like trying to think of H2O but not water. This does not seem possible, since water and H2O are the same thing, this does not lead to the idea that the mind is the body, it just leads