decartes
Descartes is famed by is familiar notion, "I think therefore I am (Cogito, ergo sum.)." It is a conclusion he has reached in his second meditation after much deliberation on the existence of anything certain. After he discovers his ability to doubt and to understand , he is able to substantiate his necessary existence as a consequence. What we doubt or understand may not ultimately correspond, but we can never be uncertain that we are in the process of thought. This idea is a major component in Descartes' proof of the external world. He relies on the existence of a non-deceiving God to ensure that an external world exists after calling it into doubt by the invocation of the dream argument. In this argument, Descartes suggests the possibility that none of our ideas are caused by external objects and therefore, such objects may not exist. He also raises the idea of a demon that may deceive us and allow us to perceive what is not really there. Although he assures himself of his own existence by his modes of thought, he remains uncertain of the reality of an external world. He doubts whether there is anything of material substance that provokes thought within him rather than it being conceived in his mind completely in
dependent of anything else. Descartes then considers those reasons that have inclined him to believe these material things exist in the past. "I know by experience that these ideas do not depend upon my will, nor consequently upon myself, for often I notice them against my will... I feel heat, and therefore I believe that this feeling or idea of heat comes to me from something other than myself, namely from the fire I am near. Nothing is more obvious than the judgment that this object (rather than something else) grafts its likeness on to me." It seems that Descartes finds it necessary to first establish the existence of a non-deceiving God before he can be assured of the existence of anything beyond himself and his mode of thought. He does this by the rationalization that his perception of God is that of a perfect being. In order for a being to be perfect it must exist. Since he himself is an imperfect being, he can not conceive the idea of perfection on his own. Therefore, it must have come from some other faculty that must be perfect, which is God. But this external reality is different from our reality of thought. It becomes dualistic by the idea of two separate substances. Descartes establishe
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Approximate Word count = 827
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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