Compare And Contrast Descartes And Cogito Ergo Sum

Cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am, these words said by famous philosopher Rene Descartes, entail an interesting idea, that the mind is a separate entity from the body. Those who believe in this theory are known as dualists, dualists believe that mind and body are two separate entities that interact to create a person. The materialists stand opposite to the dualists, believing that all things including the mental phenomenon of consciousness are the result of physical interactions

Descartes in his “Meditations on First Philosophy” is determined to wipe away all his conceived notions of truth, and to build his knowledge base from nothing, in order to have a more perfect and true knowledge. He writes of the origin of this course of action.

I say perceives as Descartes finds that he can doubt his senses, and therefore his knowledge of the physical world. He cannot be sure what is real and what could be illusion in his understanding of the world, to dispel the illusion he conceives to find that which he cannot bring into doubt. He finds that all things can be called into doubt, all things but one, that which is his own existence; this is where cogito ergo sum comes from, the very existence of his thoughts means that there must be a being thinking those thoughts, i.e.

This is essentially stating the obvious notion that our minds aren’t in the physical realm, and therefore cannot experience the event first hand; instead they receive the input from your senses to formulate what experience you have had. This might just seem to be common sense, of course we know things through our senses, however when viewed with the idea that Descartes presents, that the senses can be doubted and therefore all information from these senses can be labeled faulty, it calls into question what is