In the "Principles of Philosophy", he has presented his results, 

 and, in his "Meditations", he gives a more detailed account of the 

 means whereby he attained those results. It is well known that 

 Des Cartes, like Augustine many centuries before, commenced with 

 a method of doubt, which, however, was a means only to rid himself 

 of certain opinions he had previously unquestioningly accepted, his 

 final aim being to build upon solid foundations "a firm and abiding 

 superstructure in the sciences". 1 As a result, then, of this method 

 of doubt, Des Cartes finds that there is one thing itself indubitable, 

 viz., the fact that he doubts. Here, in the immediate facts of 

 doubt, Des Cartes finds the foundation upon which he may base 

 his arguments. But Des Cartes misunderstood the significance 

 of his own conclusions. Running throughout the Meditations and 

 becoming quite explicit in the Principles is the unfortunate division 

 he made between matter with its principal attribute of extension, 

 and mind, with its principal attribute of thinking. Having assumed 

 that mind and matter were thus disparate, it became an impossible 

 task to prove knowledge of material objects, and yet this is the 

 attempt to which Des Cartes, like Locke, was unwittingly driven. 

 It was to be only by forsaking the method with which he had com- 

 menced and by making certain further dogmatic assumptions that 

 Des Cartes was to bring into any kind of relation the two sub- 

 stances, mind and matter, supposed to be so different. And here 

 it is that his rationalism becomes apparent. The senses alone, 

 Des Cartes affirms, can never give clear and distinct knowledge of 

 external objects. As he himself says, " it is now manifest to me that 

 bodies themselves are not properly perceived by the senses nor by 

 the faculty of imagination but by the intellect alone, . . . they are 

 not perceived because they are seen and touched, but only because 

 they are understood, or rightly comprehended by thought." 2 

 Furthermore, not even then would there be a sure knowledge of 

 external things, for man would still be liable to err in his judgments, 

 were it not for the fact that there is implanted in him an idea, an 

 innate idea of God, from which Des Cartes proceeds to the proof of 

 His existence. Knowing thus that there is a God, that He is no 

 deceiver and that all things depend on Him, Des Cartes thence 

 infers that all which he clearly and distinctly perceives is neces- 



1 Meditations I, P. 21. The Open Court Edn. 

 1 Ibid. P. 41. 



89 



