ABSTRACT
The Meditations prove that the mind is an immaterial substance really distinct from body. It is in the second Meditation that Descartes intends to complete the task of forming a clear and distinct idea of thinking substance. In the second Response he says that our early ideas of what mind is were confused and attributed to mind much that belonged to sensible bodies. It is to be remarked that the idea of the mind must be the idea of a substance, since the real distinction subsists between substances. If the second Meditation serves to the formation of such an idea, it must imply a doctrine of substance which serves to the formation of a clear and distinct idea of a particular substance. If the nature of particular substances is to be truly examined, it is necessary that a theory of substance be arrived at which makes the nature of substance completely transparent to human thought.
