Story 1What makes a mind and a self persist?
Descartes — The thinking self and the extended body
The question that opens it
If every bodily fact is doubted, does the thinking self remain, and could it exist without the body?
What changes as you read the work
- 1
Descartes structures the Meditations to withdraw from the senses through doubt and reach certainty about the thinking subject.
Check the evidence
This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.
René Descartes
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §4.2 The Meditations; Meditation II
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- 2
The Sixth Meditation argument for real distinction treats mind and body as non-identical and argues for the possibility of their existing apart.
Check the evidence
This is an evidence-linked editorial account, not a direct quotation.
Descartes' Modal Metaphysics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §5 Real Distinction; AT 7:78, CSM 2:54
Open source