Rene Descartes 'From Skepticism To Conviction'

Physically, humans consist of muscle, bones, blood, cells, but how do we really classify what makes a human a human? What if someday a scientific finding occurs and we learn that we can move a person's brain to another person's body, or into an robot. Are they still the same person or even a person? Opposite sides would say no, because the flesh is not the same or even there at all, but those sides are forgetting all the memories that the brain possess.If a person is aware of their conscious and unconscious minds, they are human.

Humans have the capability to think for themselves and therefore can be aware of there own existence. In the first essay we studies, “From Skepticism to Conviction” by Rene Descartes, shows the basis of the human

declaration. The main purpose of the essay is to figure out what things in our world exist and what we make up in our minds. Descartes manage to show us that if you think of your existence, then you must exist, in his words he says “I think, therefore I am.” Anyone that is aware of themselves, they are classified as a human. Descartes later goes on to say that “there is nothing in the world that is entirely certain”, which leads to ca contradicting thought that even if we are self aware, do we really exist? Theoretically, everything that happens during our day to day life could be made up by our own false realities. In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, prisoners are trapped in a cave and forced to look at a wall for their entire lives and base their beliefs off of shadows. When one of the prisoner escape, he finds out that all of his beliefs were a lie and gains a whole new perspective on what is real and what is not. He then goes back to the cave to enlighten the prisoners; however, they reject his statements and new beliefs because “to them… the truth would be literally nothing but the shadow” (Plato). The prisoners relate to a lot of modern day “humans” because we have a tendency to only believe in things that we have seen and it is hard to believe or persuade people to change opinions. Another example of this is in the movie, Matrix. Neo the main character is given new information about the world and what is really true. He learns that all humans are in a computer simulator, and everything they see, hear, feel, or taste is all just made up but if we are not really experiencing things, are we still human? However in both works, people have the ability to think for themselves, even if they do not know the truth. Because of this, I believe that because people have the ability to think for themselves, they are human.
In “An Essay Concerning Human Behavior” by John Locke, Locke suggest that people believe or assume that we as humans must have innate ideas because we have been lead to believe that some truths have no better explanation; but if he can prove adequately how such knowledge is gained through sense, we do not need the “help” of speculation about such innate ideas.

Our principals and beliefs people choose to follow in life are based on experiences, sensations, and reflections, they are not innate in nature. Even though our knowledge and ideas come from experience, sensation, and reflections, Socrates states in “The Allegory of the Cave”, our minds can create false realities that we may perceive as being the truth. Locke’s beliefs in this essay are very similar to mine, almost exact. I do not believe that we have innate ideas. I believe that everybody has different minds and opinions. At the top of this essay there is a quote that states, rationalist are like spiders who ‘spin webs out of themselves’ while empiricist are more like bees who ‘collect material from the outside world and turn it into something valuable’”(qtd. in Thompson). The way I see it, everybody learns from experience. For example, in lacrosse everybody sucks in the beginning because they lack the experience of playing but with practice, they gain knowledge and experience of the game. Another aspect that I agree with Locke on is how nobody has the same principles and can change and form their own. I think that everybody has the freedom and the consciousness to make there own principles and ideas, which is one thing that make us

human.
The “body” cannot exist without a “mind, I believe that a “,mind” can exist without a body”. In J.P. Moreland’s “A Contemporary Defense of Dualism’ essay, he shows is views on the mind-body theory.