Descartes

A detailed Summary of Descartes

Everyday we are bombarded with various forms of stimuli. We see many people, we hear cars drive by, we feel the cool breeze, etc, but how can we prove that we are really experiencing these stimuli? That is the question that Rene Descartes asked some three hundred fifty years ago, is there anything real in this world? Descartes concluded that at least his mind existed because he was thinking, which led to him saying "Cogito ergo sum" which means I think therefore I am. In this essay I will briefly discuss Descartes' theory, and discuss alternative opinions to his theory.

Around 1641 Descartes convinced himself that nothing really existed "no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies," (Hospers 71) so would this make him nonexistent? No it wouldn't because he doubts and how can there be doubt if there isn't anybody to do the doubting. Now that he proved that the mind existed then he could doubt everything else, such as what we saw, heard, tasted, felt, and smelled. Descartes supposed that there was a demon that was spending all of its time deceiving him and everyone else. The demon would plant illusions in his and everybody's head to make us believe that we are seeing, touching, tasting, hearing, and smelling, it may even

Another theory is that everyone is part if one big mind, we are all created by a huge mind, almost like a book, and we are the characters. Descartes' "demon" could also be part of this theory as the "writer" of this so-called book we call life. We have no mind we are just pawns moving as the "writer" sees fit, if we were to doubt it would be a result of us just following the script, so a mind would not be necessary, in such circumstances. This adds to the frustration because it is impossible to truly prove any of these theories, there are little things that are seem proven, but are only on a philosophical basis.

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Descartes seemed to have a perverse faith to believe a demon is the root of all of the false perception. If only our mind existed then where is our mind? If we are living in a fake reality our minds could be sitting in a tank somewhere or something to that effect. If that were the case then we wouldn't have to look to a demon for our perception fallacies, our own mind could be the root of our false reality. If Descartes believed that a demon was the culprit then how fantastical could it be to think that we are creating this ourselves. If our world is fake then one could guess that our mind dwells in a place that is for lack of a better word boring, because there isn't anything to stimulate it like music, art, food, etc, so the mind would be forced to make it up. That may explain the difference in perception amon

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1058
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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