Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Nature
In AT 82, Descartes says "My sole concern here is with what God has bestowed on me as a combination of mind and body." This would seem to me to mean that the mind and body are interconnected in terms of discovering or being revealed truth - that through the senses we can discover various truths. However, soon after the above comment, Descartes says "For knowledge of the truth about such things seems to belong to the mind alone, not the combination of the mind and body." Is this a reference to the fact that knowledge is stored in the mind, or that truth can only be understood through the existence of the mind? For example, if I put my hand on something extremely hot, I will burn myself. But without the knowledge that this produces a burn, my hand might be inclined to continue to place itself on the hot thing. Yes, Descartes does seem to see some sort of interconnectedness, but perhaps not in the discovering or retention of the knowledge of truth.
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How this seems to me:
ReplyDeleteIt seems that through the senses we discover things mostly true but sometimes false. D. uses the example of dropsy, where a person is always thirsty but drinking will harm them due to the disease. In this case, the usual rule established by the body's senses- thirst should be satisfied with drink - is wrong. This is not Truth or certainty.
Only the mind achieves Truth because only in the mind can principles or ideas be discovered that are always true. The senses never sense or contact eternal or unchanging things only changeable, finite extended substance.. (For the Aristotle and his contemporaries, the heavenly bodies were such sensible eternal truths, but D. does not have that pleasant illusion)