Hassan Ahmad

Professor Alex Gromak

PHI 1010: Introduction to Philosophy
1 December 2014
I am a Thinking Thing
In Rene Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, the author sets out on a journey to
get rid of his preconceived ideas and rebuild his knowledge from the ground up. In his first
Meditation, Descartes uses his Method of Doubt to rid himself of his preconceptions and prior
knowledge. He follows the Method of Doubt up with his first and second undeniable truths,
which are I think, therefore I am, and I am a thinking thing, respectively. He continues
through the second Meditation, elaborating on what the thing is, what its made of, and how
important it is. He closes off the second Meditation with the Wax Argument, aiming to prove the
superiority and ease of the mental mind over the physical body. Descartes goal is to create a
strong basis for all the knowledge he has obtained using both of his truths, and slowly rebuilding
everything he has cast into doubt.
Meditation I, Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called into Doubt, focuses on
dismissing prior knowledge through the Method of Doubt (MoD). The gist of the MoD is the
search for absolute truths. If there are any beliefs that can be doubted, they are treated as false
and discarded. He then divides his beliefs into the two categories of a posteriori, from the senses
or experience, and a priori, not from the senses- such as mathematical truths. The two ways he
uses to disregard a posteriori beliefs are Deception and the Dream Problem. On multiple
occasions, human senses can deceive the mind, especially with optical illusions, mirages, and
mistakenly seeing or hearing things that were never there. Keeping this in mind, the senses can

no longer be trusted, and are deemed false since they cast ideas into doubt. The Dream Problem
further degrades the validity of the senses by calling into question whether or not he can fully
know hes not dreaming, especially since some extremely realistic dreams can deceive him too.
At this point, Descartes has removed all a posteriori beliefs, leaving only the a priori
ones. Since these beliefs arent known through the senses, they cant be falsified with the doubt
placed on the senses, neither through the process of Deception, nor the Dream Problem. Since
mathematical truths like 2+2=4 and triangles having three sides are included in a priori beliefs,
they stand through the Dream Problem. Even if someone is dreaming, mathematical truths
remain true and sound. Descartes does find a way to remove a priori beliefs as well, through the
idea of the Evil Demon Deceiver. The fact that such a being could exist that could be deceiving
him into believing the a priori truths, means that the a priori truths could be doubted, and are
therefore false using the MoD. The Evil Demon also adds on another level of possible falsehood
onto the earlier a posteriori beliefs, and its possible existence leads to the complete falsification
of all knowledge Descartes has maintained.
Meditation II, Concerning the Nature of the Human Mind: That it is Better Known than
the Body, is the central Meditation in Descartes book. Everything he mentions becomes the
basis of the rebuilding of knowledge, and the centerpiece of his following Meditations as well.
He starts by arriving at his First Truth, I think, therefore I am. The First Truth is then put
through its paces, starting with the MoD and the Dream Problem, followed by the Evil Demon
Deceiver. Even if the First Truth can be doubted, something has to be doing the doubting, which
cannot exist independently. Even if Descartes is dreaming, something has to be doing the
dreaming, which cannot exist independently. And even if the Evil Demon is deceiving him, he

has to exist to be deceived. Thus, the First Truth is indubitably true, beating the three tests that
had falsified all else.
Before he can move past the newly-minted First Truth and onto the Second one,
Descartes has to define what he is, or rather what he means by the I in the First Truth. He
brainstorms with three possible answers to the question, What am I? His first definition is that
he is a rational animal, but he quickly scraps it since it requires the definitions of the terms
rational and animal, which can, in turn, be doubted. The second option is that he is a body,
but he disregards this as well. Something that occupies space, and can only be detected by the
fallible senses, isnt possible based on his First Truth; since the body would have to exist in the
currently nonexistent physical realm, it cant exist. The mental aspect he knows to be true is
somewhat incompatible with the idea of a body, because Descartes thinks that if his mind and
body were one thing, he would either know both of them, or neither of them, not one over the
other; he knows one and not the other, so he cannot be a bodily thing. He finally resolves that he
is his soul, a rare and subtle immaterial substance that can be nourished, can sense, can think,
and can move. This definition then faces the wrath of his MoD, which takes away three of the
four components of the definition, leaving him with an immaterial substance that holds at least
one characteristic: the undoubtable attribute of thought.
Descartes moves forward and determines that he is only a thing that thinks; his Second
Truth becomes I am a thinking thing. Thinking is referred to as any form of thought, such as
doubting, affirming, and denying. The MoD fails against the Second Truth through redundancy,
if he doubts that he is thinking, then he is thinking about doubting that he is thinking, and for that
reason, hes thinking. It can also be stated that since doubting is a form of thought, it is
reaffirming itself. Since thought cannot exist independently of the being that contains it, and a

being cannot exist without it thinking, he adds on the thing to the Second Truth. Descartes later
elaborates on the immaterial substance, by providing it with three necessary components:
continuance, support, and substance. He is a continuant, a substance that exists and persists
through the passage of time. He is the support of the attributes he has already identified. The
support is able to contain the mental acts of thinking, housing the qualities of doubt, thought,
affirmation, and denial. And in regards to the substance itself, he deems it mental in nature,
knowing that he thinks, understands, and perceives, while doubting and therefore falsifying the
existence of a physical aspect to his essence.
Once Descartes had determined his existence as a continuant mental support, he sets out
to prove that the mind is more easily known than the body, if it exists. He does this through the
Wax Argument. A piece of wax, in its solid state, has its own texture, odor, taste, size, mass, and
color. If heated, the stated attributes of wax suddenly change completely or are removed. Going
from solid to liquid, the texture would change, the odor would become stronger, the taste would
be different, it would be in a different size or shape, the mass would change, and the color would
be clearer. If the solid wax and the melted wax were to be compared, they would be different in
every physical way. The senses in the physical world alone, would perceive them as two separate
substances, when it is already known that they are the same object in a different form. In this
way, the senses and the conclusions drawn from their use are invalidated. The unreliability of the
senses in the Piece of Wax Example then lead Descartes to realize that the only way to form the
connection between the original and melted wax would be through the faculties of the mind.
Relating the Wax Argument back to the discussion of the superiority of the mind over
body, Descartes brings up perception, and direct and indirect access to each. Any physical body,
such as the piece of wax or a human body, is not directly perceived by the senses. If Descartes

has a body, knowledge of the body goes beyond the senses and into the mental realm. The body
can be known by the mind and its mental faculties alone, but the mind cannot be known by the
body and its physical senses alone. He has direct access to his mind, but not to the body, since
the body and its attributes need the mental aspect to exist while the mind isnt dependent on the
body. Knowing the body takes more steps than it does to know the mind, and therefore knowing
the mind is easier than knowing the body.
In the ways Descartes tried to doubt his First and Second Truths, they seem undeniable. I
personally believe that they cannot be doubted. Every obstacle that could be thrown at them to
muster up some doubt was thrown and still failed to do so. The First Truth is impermeable
specifically for the reason that it turns every attack back onto itself. If I doubt the First Truth, I
am doubting, which is a form of thought, so Im thinking. My existence being based on thought
also makes sense, because of the fact that thought can exist independently of everything except
the being that produces it. While the Second Truth isnt open enough to be attacked either, its
vagueness is bothersome. I dont doubt it, because it follows the logic presented by Descartes
and the logic I can form myself after reading his work, but Descartes has to explain what the
thing is, making it less a standalone truth and more a thesis that requires elaboration.
After Descartes destroys his knowledge completely in Meditation I using the Method of
Doubt, his goal is to create a foundation of absolute truths to rebuild it onto. He comes up with
his First Truth, I think, therefore I am, and the Second Truth, I am a thinking thing. Both of
his truths are able to withstand the Method of Doubt, the Dream Problem, and the Evil Demon
Deceiver. Immediately following that, he discusses what he is, resulting in him declaring himself
as a continuant support, and a mental immaterial substance. He uses that to prove that the mind is
more easily known than the body, focusing on the Wax Argument and how the mind is able to

connect the dots that the physical senses cannot perceive. At this point in the book, Descartes is
left with no a priori or a posteriori knowledge, but has his two Undeniable Truths. The only way
to move forward is to discard the objections raised against his original knowledge, starting with
the biggest one- The Evil Demon Deceiver. In the following Meditation, Descartes targets the
Demon by arguing for the existence of his mutually exclusive polar opposite, God.