Abstract

This paper spells out the implications, for Descartes's theory of ideas, of my earlier paper, "Descartes's Wax: Discovering the Nature of Mind." I show that my reading of the wax investigation provides a number of clarifications of Descartes's Meditation III discussion of ideas. My reading of Meditation III provides a ground, internal to the Meditations for Descartes's claims about objective reality, the causal laws, material falsity and the idea of God. I show that Descartes's claims and conclusions regarding these issues is strengthened by the perspective I have provided