 In the Third Meditation, Descartes introduces what scholars refer to as “the truth rule”: Whatever one perceives clearly and distinctly is true. (AT VII 35; CSM II 24) In the Fifth Meditation, in his analysis of the clear and distinct idea of a triangle, Descartes argues that since “whatever is true is something (i.e., real)” (AT VII 65; CSM II 45), it follows that “everything which I clearly and distinctly perceive to belong to that thing (the triangle) really does belong to it…” (AT VII 65; CSM II 45) As others have argued (Wahl 1995, Lennon 2007, Smith 2010a, Smith 2015), for Descartes, to say that something was “real” was in part to say that it existed independently of a finite mind. This is the import of Descartes’ proving the existence of God and body. They are real things. In his analysis of the idea of the triangle, Descartes concludes that the natures that he clearly and distinctly perceives the triangle as possessing are in fact possessed by the triangle. These natures are real. 