 The opening line of the Sixth Meditation makes clear its principal objective: “It remains for me to examine whether material things exist” (AT 7:71, CSM 2:50). At this juncture, the meditator perfectly knows of his own existence and of God’s. It follows that there’s an external world with at least one object, namely, God. However, the existence of an external material world remains in doubt. Establishing the existence of material bodies is not a straightforward matter of perceiving them, because, in Descartes’ view, “bodies are not strictly perceived by the senses” (see  Section 9.1).