Philosophical Reconstruction - Essay Example

28 April Argument Reconstruction of Descartes’ Meditations (Second Meditation) The Second Meditation of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy: Concerning the Nature of Human Mind: That is Better Known than the Body, is rather testing and complicated, and sometimes it is not "trouble-free" to follow what he intends to carry out. While Descartes' claim is not solely and completely clear-cut and well-defined - he does not openly create the relationships that I will formulate, instead, indirectly draws attention to those relationships – the claim is adept of reconstruction.

Firstly, observe that Descartes presents two leading issues in the second meditation: (1) the cognito (the idea on thinking); (2) the wax argument. It is almost certainly a good wager that these issues are linked to each other, which certainly are connected to each other. In the First Meditation, Descartes arrives at an inference that whether he is reasoning or questioning, his mind must be present in order to perform such actions, primarily of questioning or contemplating. Hence, he is completely sure of the reality and existence of his own mind.

In the Second Meditation, Descartes inaugurates to tackle the characteristic and nature of his own mind, as well as the control that the mind possesses as long as he completely perceives a thing or material. He confronts his conundrum by assessing who and what he really is, and that his being in the world, as a thing that perceives or doubts, is completed by having a thinking mind, and by possessing a body that acts or works together with the world. In the Second Meditation, Descartes inscribes: "What then did I use to think I was?

A man, of course. But what is a man? . I had a face, hands, arms, and this entire mechanism of bodily members: the very same as are discerned in the corpse, and which I referred to by the name "body" (Descartes, 18). In this passage, Descartes comes across with the difficulty that he is only able to perceive or know about the body through the body. The human body, as long as it interacts with the world and all other entities which are possible to be doubted, must also be questioned. The certainty in the existence of a body in the world must be discarded by Descartes; the lone matter or entity that hangs about is the existence of his mind.

If this particular issue is considered in the light of metaphysics, the lone thing that exists is his own mind; in the light of epistemology, Descartes can merely understand or, at least, realize that his mind is real and existent, and nothing more. Descartes continues to present his claim, "What about thinking? Here I make my discovery: thought exists; it alone cannot be separated from me. I am; I exist—this is certain. But for how long? For as long as I am thinking; for perhaps it could also come to pass that if I were to cease all thinking I would then utterly cease to exist.

I am therefore precisely nothing but a thinking thing; that is, a mind, or intellect, or understanding, or reason—words of whose meanings I was previously ignorant" (Descartes, 19). This part of the texts presents the most critical place, in which nearly all interpreters, observers, and critics infer that Descartes establishes an unbreakable and impenetrable division between the human mind and human body; by simply placing everything as contemplations inside the mind, the outside domain is therefore abolished and disregarded, as with the human body and all other physical and natural occurrences; hence, Descartes can take place as a thinking thing, which takes place autonomously of the body.

In reconstruction, the Second Meditation would like to present the following argument: 1. A thing is made up of its possessions and an essential matter to which these “possessions” have their place. (Substantial Concept) 2. The human body exists because of the mind. The mind is what makes the human body parts exist, such that, the hands, the legs, the face, and all other properties of the “substance” take place because of thinking (Premise). 3. Therefore, if there are possessions, there must be a “substance” to which they go.

(From 1 and 2) 4. A thought is caused by an external factor, a Supreme Being (Assumption) 5. If thought does exist, there should be something or Someone to which it comes from. Work Cited Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy: In which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body are Demonstrated. Trans. Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1993. Print.