Intellect, Not Imagination
Descartes meditations are his way of trying to show what you can and cannot believe. He uses a melting candle to prove extension and the existence of bodies. By the end of the first meditation, Descartes has deemed himself completely without knowledge. By introducing various sceptical possibilities, he has done away with any certainty in his previous beliefs. He reasons the possibility of a deceptive God which means he can never be sure of anything, because there is always the chance he is being deceived. However, in the second meditation he realizes that even if he is being deceived, he can still be sure of one thing, his existence. To be deceived, there must be something that is being deceived, which means he must exist. Even having found his one piece of certainty, Descartes is still left with the impression that he understands the "corporeal" things of the external world much better than this necessary existence of the first person. So he puts......
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