ABSTRACT
The proof of the union of mind and body in the sixth Meditation consists only in drawing attention to a matter of fact which is not explicable by formal causes. The pages of the Meditations, following the proof of the real existence of bodies, are concerned with the union of mind and body, and the reliability of the judgments of sense perception. It is as though Descartes had shifted his attention from metaphysics in the strict sense, and had lost himself in the observation of certain experiences for the own sake. The end of all Descartes' researches is the good of man. But what is man? A whole made up of mind and body, who has a sensual nature, and acts rightly or wrongly on the evidence of the senses. To be able to determine the nature of the union of body and mind is, therefore, to be able to determine that on which man's happiness depends.
