PAPER Topics

Start of Term Paper
Descartes's Second Meditation discusses how a "body" can perceive things, such as objects. Perception is vital to his first theory that "[he] thinks, therefore [he] is." In order to prove his conclusion; he goes through a series of premises, ....

Middle of Term Paper
... premise that "bodies" can perceive things in three ways. These ways are through the senses, the imagination, or the intellect. So his first premise implies that Descartes believes that there are only three ways to perceive things. The structure of the argument is based around the type of argument known as an argument by elimination. Argument made by elimination exists by beginning with a number of possibilities, then ruling out all but one possibility, therefore making that possibility be true. In his argument he gives three possibilities, in his first premise, then rules out the first two, to come to the conclusion stated above. Ther ...