Assembled by Christopher Lay

Los Angeles Pierce College

Department of Philosophy & Sociology

Descartes' Argument for Mind/Body Dualism

from his 2nd Meditation  

"I know that I exist, and I inquire what I am, I whom know to exist [ ... ].  But I already know for certain that I am, and that it may be that all these images, and, speaking generally, all things that relate to the nature of body are nothing but dreams [and chimeras]. [...]  For if I judge that the wax is or exists from the fact that I see it, it certainly follows much more clearly that I am or that I exist myself from the fact that I see it.  For it may be that what I see is not really wax it may also be that I do not possess eyes with which to see anything; but it cannot be that when I see, or [...] when I think I see, that I myself who think am nought. (Descartes, 152-6)."  Quoted in Bruce and Barbone's (2011) Just the Arguments, p. 294.