The statement “I think. therefore I am” lays the basis for Rene Descartes’ statement in the Meditations. To understand this look. one must set themselves in Descartes’ topographic point. He started off seeking to calculate what he can cognize with certainty. He examined a big organic structure of cognition and figured out that he can non be certain of any cognition at all. Get downing in Meditation Two. Descartes hunts for the something that must be true no affair what. This led to the decision that he does in fact exist if he can still believe. It is from this Archimedean Point that Descartes goes on to construct a new. well-built organic structure of cognition about his being and God’s being. The statement “I think. therefore I am” can non be doubted.
Descartes felt that that the power of thought or detection has nil to make with the physical organic structure. If he could discontinue all thought than he could discontinue to be. A thing that thinks is “a thing that uncertainties. understands. affirms. denies. volitions. garbages. and that besides imagines and senses” ( Descartes 20 ) . There is a clear separation between the head and the organic structure. If the organic structure exists. it does non intend the “I” exist. The head is something that is believing. indivisible. and non-extended while the organic structure is something that is non-thinking. divisible and drawn-out. He believes in the criterion of flawlessness. which must be separate from his head because of the imperfectness in his thought.
A common expostulation to Descartes’ theory is that an evil devil could be doing one think that “I am” . Descartes’ grounds for uncertainty are that his senses are misdirecting him. the possibility of him woolgathering. or the arch God that dwells on lead oning him. Even if he was being deceived. he is still a believing thing since he recognizes himself being misled. One can non be tricked unless they really exist. In order for him to swear his ain thoughts. he must believe that a non-deceiving God exists. To be certain that this God exists. he must be able to swear that what he believes and perceives is true. This is false every bit good because God can non be proven with clear thoughts. but merely with the most basic thoughts of rationality and the rules of uncertainty.
Another expostulation to Descartes’ political orientation is the being of the topic. “I” . He assumes there is substance in the topic. He stretches excessively far because he assumes excessively much when he says “I think. therefore I am” . The critics consider that it is possible to doubt the being of the substance in the “I” . David Hume believed that the topic of the statement is nil more than a package of ideas. which parallels Descartes’ thoughts. If perfectly nil “I” imagine is true. still the ability to conceive of does be. and so it is a portion of a package of ideas.
In decision. the statement “I think. therefore I am” can non be doubted with certainty. The topic of the phrase is nil more than a package of ideas. If this topic can believe. so he must be. The separation of the head and organic structure shows that the head can populate without its organic structure. every bit long as thought is still happening. The act of thought is what constitutes one’s being.
Plants Cited
Descartes. Rene . Meditations on First Philosophy. Trans. Donald A. Cress. Capital of indiana: Hackett Publishing Company. 1993.
