ABSTRACT
Many philosophical discussions of this Meditation focus on the second titular topic, “the real distinction between mind and body.” In Descartes’ technical terminology (derived from the scholastics), a “real distinction” is a distinction between two substances (7:13, 162; see also 8A:28-9) – in this case, between two substances having mutually exclusive essences (thought and extension). The argument for this distinction occupies a single paragraph (7:78), the penultimate paragraph in the long discussion of the existence of material things. In the flow of the text, the argument reads simply as the initial step in the coming proof that material things exist. Nonetheless, the distinction holds a central place in Descartes’ metaphysics, and it conditions his theory of sensation and appetite as manifestations of mind-body union and interaction.
