Rene Descartes 1596-1650 Rene Descartes 1596-1650

Meditation 2 Outline: Cogito: The Nature of of the Human MindC. Intuition of the piece of wax: what can be clearly and distinctlygrasped?1. Nothing by sensing the wax: a flux of changing impressions2. The wax remains singular, the appearances change fluidly3. Is this through the imagination? No, the wax "takes on an evengreater variety of dimensions than I could ever grasp with theimagination" (22)4. The wax remains singular in all the innumerablerepresentations5. Is the wax perceived by the mind alone? – apprehending theunchanging substance underlying variegated appearances isan inspection on the part of the mind alone"what I thought I had seen with my eyes, I actually grasped solely withthe faculty of judgment, which is in my mind" (22)53