Descartes and the Existence of Physical Objects

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Descartes and the Existence of Physical Objects

In his sixth meditation Descartes must return to the doubts he raised in his first one. Here he deals mainly with the mind-body problem and tries to prove whether material things exist with certainty. In this meditation he develops his dualist argument; by making a distinction between mind and body; although he also reveals that the are significantly related. He considers existence of the external world and whether its perception holds any knowledge of this world. He also questions whether this knowledge is real or is merely an illusion. He makes it quite clear how misleading and deceiving some external sensations can be.

In the beginning of this last meditation he attempts to prove the existence of external object. One way of achieving this is by recognizing the distinct ideas he had of external objects are thoroughly imprinted in his memory, he realizes that the concept of these ideas could not have originated from his mind. Therefore holding the clear knowledge of these objects was a projection of other objects. He realized he...

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