Descartes — The thinking self and the extended body

If every bodily fact is doubted, does the thinking self remain, and could it exist without the body?

Evidence-backed account

Descartes structures the Meditations to withdraw from the senses through doubt and reach certainty about the thinking subject.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

René Descartes
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §4.2 The Meditations; Meditation II
Open source

The Sixth Meditation argument for real distinction treats mind and body as non-identical and argues for the possibility of their existing apart.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Descartes' Modal Metaphysics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §5 Real Distinction; AT 7:78, CSM 2:54
Open source