ABSTRACT
Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy is probably the most widely read book of metaphysics ever written, and one of its most widely discussed theses is that the mind is really distinct from the body, and can exist without it. Descartes’ argument for the real distinction appears in rudimentary form in the Discourse on the Method. He concludes that his essence consists only in thinking, and that his mind is entirely distinct from his body and would be what it is even if his body did not exist. The notion of exclusion plays a crucial role in Descartes’ replies to his critics in the Objections and Replies, though he does not employ the term “exclusion” there. Exclusion plays a crucial part also in Descartes’ argument in Meditation Two that he is a thinking thing. Descartes is not concluding that thinking is essential for his existence, but only that thinking is the only attribute which he knows for certain he possesses.
