Descartes: I Think, Therefore I Am

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Through skepticism and doubt Descartes raised a simple yet complex question, what can I be certain of if I doubt everything? Struck by all of the falsehoods he had come to believe, Descartes set out to determine through reason what was certain and able to exist beyond doubt. In order for his habitual opinions and false knowledge to not interfere with his ability to perceive things as they truly were, Descartes doubted everything. In terms of the physical body, our senses tell us that there are external ligaments and matter that come together to produce a body. However, when we are skeptical and doubt all previous knowledge, we are then deceived by our senses and the physical body cannot be proven to exist. Even while doubting the existence of the physical body, Descartes was still able to project skepticism and have thoughts of doubt. There must have been a thinking thing thinking those doubts. For this reason, Descartes concluded that though he may not be certain that the physical body exists, he can be certain that he in fact does exist, “I am, then, in the strict since only a thinking thing that thinks,” (Cottingham 5). Thought has proven to be inseparable from “I” and there must be a self that exists. While nonmaterial, self is the intellect and faculty of thought. “I think, therefore I am,” Descartes concluded to be the single most certain fact and closest statement to an ultimate truth. We can doubt all previous knowledge and beliefs, but we cannot assume that we who are able to have thoughts such as doubts, do not exist.
Using his new concept of self as a thinking thing, Descartes further demonstrates this concept with a melting piece of wax. All of the features of the wax such as its smell, taste, sight, and touch that he...

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...the existence of the mind they do accept mental events such as perceptions and feelings. These perceptions and feelings however are unobservable and we cannot know for sure that they last a lifetime. Remember, the self is supposed to be the essential part of a person that is consistent through time. There is no way of concluding that there is a self or even person if perceptions and feelings are unobservable with no way of knowing if they remain consistent through time. The thoughts of doubt that led Descartes to form the concept of self through, “I think, therefore I am,” cannot provide evidence of a self.

Works Cited

Cottingham, John. Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. 1-8. Print.

Siderits, Mark. Buddhism as Philosophy, An Introduction. Indianapolis/Cambridge:Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 32-57. Print.

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