Meditation 6. The mind and the body

Imagination applies knowledge to a body,

The triangle versus the chiliagon. 1,000 sided figure

Understanding, abstract, versus imagining, which involves imagery
     Imagining is a looking in my mind's eye

Thinking about the many sided figure shows that this understanding must be intellectual

Imagination not part of essence of mind

I would be the same person without imagination

essence/accident distinction

My essence that I have intellect, but not that I have imagination or body

States of my body
In addition to mathematical ideas, sensations, and ideas of body, some ideas show things outside me
     They reveal qualities of things
Others are bodily states
     Sensations of my body
     They reveal that my body exists

Descartes speaks of "a certain physical object . . .
belonging to me in a special way"
That is the body, which is not part of my essence.

He contrasts
1. External world, which I perceive
2. A special part of that world called my body, whose states I feel directly
     1, 2 distinguished by producing different sorts of ideas

The phantom limb.
Just as a may err in perceiving the external world, so too I may be confused in trying to gain knowledge of my body.
     This discussion thus supplements the account of skepticism, in the 1st Meditation

I am distinct from my body
     but closely connected with it

I have a clear and distinct idea of myself as soul
     but these bodily abilities are qualities of a physical thing
     And that thing is closely connected to me.

I think I have ideas of my body
Unless God is a deceiver, I have a body
     I have proven that He is not a deceiver
So, I have a body

I am not in body like pilot in ship
The pilot knows the condition of the ship merely by observation.

But I know myself directly. I.e., I know my body
     It is not part of my essence but I have this direct relationship with it