The Meditations by Rene Descartes

In Descartes’ Meditations, his goal to prove the existence of things could only be accomplished if he was logical, clear, and correct in his thoughts and writings. The most important issues he noted were the threat of being deceived and the potential of being incorrect in his judgments, both of which would lead him into error. Error exists as a problem that individuals encounter on a regular basis, and it also exists as a focal point in Descartes’ Meditations. Descartes defines error as “a privation or lack of some knowledge which somehow should be in me.” As a “thinking thing”, which he defines as “a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines and has sensory perceptions”¹, Descartes must use his knowledge to the best of his ability. In the mind, knowledge is dealt with in the faculty of judgment. This faculty is comprised of the faculties of intellect and will, and it is limited by knowledge yet pushed forward by will (Descartes, 41). Because of this conflict, we are able to make mistakes – or come to err.

The first component of knowledge that must be examined is the faculty of intellect. Intellect allows one to think. Thought consists of the ability to understand, imagine, and perceive. Perception encompasses the ability to use the senses to form ideas of some object, whereas imagination allows one to fabricate ideas and form new thoughts. When one imagines, he simply invents ideas that exist to be judged by the mind. Ideas do not necessarily need to be true, and because of this they cannot be wrong. One can have the idea of some entity that does not exist, such as a satyr or siren, and this does not pose any issue. Simply holding an untrue idea is not an error. In the same s...

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... can be free of errors as long as no judgments are made on subjects that are not completely understood. As the intellect merely presents ideas in the mind, the errors made are in their judgments, and the incorrect use of free will. It is important to be aware of the distinction between the faculty of free will and the actual use of free will, as the faculty is perfect yet error may exist in its use. Error is shown as a result of the incorrect use of the tools granted to us, and it stands that error can be eliminated when these tools are only used to the best of their ability; any further use is clearly how we come to err (p. 43).

Work Cited

Rene Descartes, The Meditations, tr. John Cottingham, in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes Vol. 2, ed. John Cottingham, Robert Stoofhoff, Dugald Murdock (New York: University of Cambridge Press, 1984), p. 19.