Richard Singh

Tyler Viale
Philosophy of the Person II
February 4th 2014
Descartes Response Paper
In Meditations, Descartes sets out to prove clear and distinct ideas of three things:
Res Cogitans, Res Extensa, and God. The concept of clear and distinct ideas is
fundamental to Descartes because you can only claim to fully understand something once
you have a clear and distinct idea of what it is.
Res Cogitans is established in the first and second meditations. It means that since
Descartes is a thinking thing, it must mean that he exists. It is also known as the mind.
In the first meditation, Descartes doubts everything that he was ever told or believed and
chooses to build his knowledge up from its bare bones. He doubts even his own existence
but realizes that since he is able to doubt the existence of other material things, he must
exist on the basis that thought exists and cannot be removed from him. The ability to
think means that one is able to, doubt, understand, affirm, denies, wills, refuses, and
that also imagines and senses,(28).
Res Extensa translates to extended thing, which Descartes describes in the
second meditation using the wax metaphor. He establishes that if you were to use your
senses to observe the wax in its solid form, it is possible to establish that it is indeed wax.
If, however, the wax is melted and becomes liquid, your senses alone perceive it to be a
different substance. It is through your intellect, or mind, that you know that the solid and
liquid forms are in fact the same thing. Since its sensory properties have changed but it
still remains a piece of wax, it is therefore an extendable substance. Understanding this,
however, comes from the mind. Here, Descartes illustrates the difference between

primary attributes and modes. The waxs attribute is extension: it has the ability to change
its appearance into an infinite number of forms while still maintaining its identity as wax.
Its properties are things that our senses observe: color, texture, smell etc.
God is proved during meditation three and explained further during meditations
four and five. Descartes describes him as, infinite, independent, supremely intelligent
and supremely powerful, and that created me along with everything else that exists, The
proof begins when Descartes states that since he is a thinking thing, and has the ability to
doubt and judge things he sees around him, there must be something within him that
recognizes the imperfection. Doubt originates when the mind sees something is missing
in the object. Therefore, there must exist in the mind an idea of perfection to which
doubted objects are compared to. This idea of perfection is God and is the most clear and
distinct idea in all minds, which also proves that God is the creator of all. Since man is
made in Gods image, there must be a substance in us that originates in God.
Earlier in the meditations, the notion that God could be a deceiver arises. The
idea was refuted in meditation three when Descartes says that fraud and deception are a
type of defect(52), which cannot be attributed to God, as he is perfect. There is a flaw
here, however, when it comes to this argument. The clear and distinct notion that God
exists, is perfect and not a deceiver relies on clear and distinct notions always being true.
Since our clearest and most distinct notion is that God exists, is perfect and not a
deceiver, we have reached a circle. For one to be true the other must be and Descartes
provides no proofs for either. This is due to the fact that he says our idea of God is innate.
The role of God in Descartes world is not a stereotypical over bearer who
constantly looks in to the world to punish those who do not praise him and reward those

who do. Instead, after creating humanity, he takes a step back and watches. He makes it
so that humans have the ability to improve and better themselves while making sure it is
impossible to be better than him. God is seen as just a creator who chooses not to meddle
in the goings on in the world.
To Descartes, a person is one who thinks and constantly ponders the world around
them. He believes that in order to truly be a human, it is necessary to doubt and question
everything we encounter until we have a clear understanding of it, that is, in our intellect.
We will seek to have clear and distinct ideas about the basic foundations of our lives
before we work our way up to try and understand more complicated ideas.
The notions of free will and intellect serve purposes in us as well. Our intellect is
our limited knowledge base and only contains ideas we know to be definitely true, such
as the idea of God. Free will, on the other hand, is infinite and permits us the ability to
choose what to believe. Free will is the closest thing humans have to matching God in
that the choices we can make are infinite in the same way God is. Humans make mistakes
when they make judgments about things that are not in their intellect, or things they do
not know fully. The ideal person will only make judgments and decisions on substances
that reside in our intellect as we know and understand them fully.
Res Extensa and Res Cogitans are both finite substances that have their origin in
God. Extensa substances have to do with the sensible and Cogitans with the intellect. It is
through our intellect that we can perceive the identity of the extended objects such as in
the wax metaphor. Therefore, it is through Res Cogitans that we can know Res Extensa.
The division between the two lies in their primary attributes: thought and extension

respectively. Descartes values the power of thought because without it, humans would
simply be bodies that had no function.
God and Res Cogitans are related in a hierarchal sense. God is the creator of all,
which means he created our minds. By leaving us with free will, he chose to give us a
small reminder of his existence, as both free will and god are perfect and infinite. One
may argue that since God is perfect, why arent all humans perfect if we are made in his
likeness. The answer lies in the scope of substances. Each individual human makes up
just a small part of the entire universe and just because we are imperfect does not mean
God is not. To Descartes, each imperfect human comprises a perfect universe and
therefore a perfection creation of God. Also, he mentions in meditation three that no
effect could be more real than the cause, and in terms of objective reality, God is the most
real substance.
The existence of God allows for the existence of everything else since the
universe is made in his likeness. Res Extensa is the ability of objects to take on an infinite
number of forms and shapes while retaining its primary attribute of extension. Since the
primary attribute of Res Extensa includes an infinite quality, it must also come from God
as he too is infinite.
From these definitions we are able to ascertain that the universe is comprised of
an infinite number of finite, imperfect substances, either Res Cogitans or Res Extensa, all
working together to form a perfect universe. One issue is that how can numerous
imperfect parts combine to make a perfect whole. Even if God is perfect, an effect cannot
be as good as its cause.