The idea that we do not exist, the question What am I?, imagination and the mind are the main points that Descartes reasons in the second meditation. He wonders if his existence is real and enters a journey of omitting doubt from his thoughts. After realizing that he does exist he wonders what he is.
While searching for the truth about his existence, Descartes starts out by eliminating everything that creates any doubt in his mind. He desires to stay in this path until he has found something certain (108). As his thoughts expand, the idea that God presented him with the thoughts that he had came about. He quickly realized that he must be the author of those thoughts and that if he had the power to think he must exist, "thought exists; it alone cannot be separated from me. I am; I exist ..." (109), he comes to the conclusion that his mind thinks, he is capable of thought therefore he exists. So if he exists what is he?, he ponders "But I do not yet understand sufficiently what I am ..." (108). Coming to the realization that he believes he exists he wants to search for his meaning. The function of thinking makes him question the idea that because he thinks he is but what if he stops thinking? He says "... if I were to cease all thinking I would then utterly cease to exist" (109). With this thought he comes to the conclusion that he is nothing but a thinking thing (109).
Descartes also gives us an example on when perceiving what something is, imagination is not what is being used. The wax that he explains he melts and the shape of the wax changes because of the heat does not change its meaning of wax because its in liquid form or because the color is different. It continues to be wax. Then he wonders, how is it that we perceive wax? Is it through our senses of touch, smell and sight? or our imagination gives us the qualifications for wax? He goes on to say "... I do not grasp what this wax is through the imagination; rather, I perceive it through the mind alone" (111). When the wax changes states our senses tell us that is a different object but that is not the case. Our mind is the one that makes us understand what the object is and this is done through intellect alone (112) and not through the perception of our senses.
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In the reading Descartes also states that because of the fact that we have free will, we are sure to not fail in error. In addition to that we can accept as “true and indisputable those things of which we do not have certain knowledge” (7. P.232), because the free will is going to show us the right path. Considering the topic of the body and the soul Descartes brings up a few important characteristics. The body does not include any extensions, shape or any local motion and the body is only including the taught alone. This statement makes us conclude that the act of thinking is the only perceivable thing. Thought itself is defined by Descartes as “understanding, willing, imagining and feeling” (9. p232). To prove the thesis “I think-so I am”, Descartes sets a necessary condition: a human being first need to know the definition of thought, existence and certainty. As the most supreme power, which proves the knowledge of something, Descartes put the knowledge of God. Since the mind incorporates many ideas of objects right at the beginning (which are put into the human minds by God), a person can only get to know all these objects if he knows about the existence of God.
Using the Wax argument Descartes implies that the senses contribute to knowing but on its own they can be deceitful. He states that he “knows that even bodies are not perceived by the senses or the faculty of imagination but the intellect alone.” Simply, he means that judging others things from the senses is deficient and that even a truly convinced person’s perception can be misguided by their sight hearing and smell. He argues that “perception derives not from their being touched or seen but from their being understood” (pg. 22).
In the second meditation, everything else in the world is neglected by him on the grounds of doubt. He claims that the senses, imagination, and willingness are separate and can be deceitful but ultimately implies that they are all attributes of mind. He concludes that the mind is of better judgment than the senses using the wax argument. Although the wax can change shape, smell, and texture our better judgment tells us that is still wax, while our senses would tell us otherwise.
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