五月天青色头像情侣网名,国产亚洲av片在线观看18女人,黑人巨茎大战俄罗斯美女,扒下她的小内裤打屁股

歡迎光臨散文網(wǎng) 會員登陸 & 注冊

Descartes on the Cogito

2023-06-14 11:48 作者:raft0065  | 我要投稿

Descartes on the Cogito

The Cogito

- In such a state of doubt, the one thing that I cannot doubt is that I am in fact doubting right now.

- Doubting is a form of thinking

- So, I know that I am thinking, even if the thing I'm thinking is 'I'm so confused! I don't know anything any more!'

? ? If I'm thinking then surely I must exist. I must be real if I'm able to think. I might not know what I am, or whether this body that I think I inhabit is really here, but I do know that I am here thinking.

- So, famously, this leads Descartes to pronoun cogito ergo sum, 'I think therefore I am'.


Cogito ergo sum

- In the Meditations, he says 'I am, I exist'

- In the Second Replies, he writes 'I think, therefore I am, or I exist'

ego = I, sum = I am, ergo = therefore, cogito = I think, existo = I exist


What is the Cogito?

- Is this:

? ? 1. An argument? - I think; [whatever thinks exists;] therefore, I exist (it 'follows' that I exist). Formally: A, if A then B, therefore B.

? ? 2. An intuition? - I simply know, when thinking, that I exist (it is 'most evident').

? ? 3. A necessary condition? - In order for me to be able to think, I must exist (it is 'necessarily ture').

- Or is perhaps more than one of these at the same time, all of them, or indeed none?


Descartes' Answer

- In the 2nd Replies, although he presents it in the form of a syllogism, he denies that it is an argument. Instead he describes as an intuition, and as a necessary condition:


A thinking thing

- In the course of this discussion in the 2nd Meditation Descartes describes himself as a 'thinking thing' (res cogitans)

- In the 5th Replies, he glosses this by saying that he is a thinking substance (substantia cogitans)

- Is he justified in making those claims?

????????I am thinking, I am -> I am a thing that thinks [what is a 'thing']

????????I am thinking, I am -> I am a substance that thinks [what is a 'substance']


Georg Lichtenberg's Objection

- Descartes does not prove the existence of a thinking substance or thing, nor even the existence of 'I', a conscious entity. All he proves is that there is thinking happening, not that I think.

- Should Descartes merely say 'there is thinking taking place'?


Stressing 'I'

- But Descartes stresses I with his use of ego. It is I who thinks. His phrase ego cogito is far more emphatic than just cogito (which on its own means 'I think')

- See also the 3rd Replies to Thomas Hobbes:


Something Paradoxical

- The thing that is beyond doubt, 'I' a thinking thing, has a nature completely unknown to us.

- By contrast, bodies, whose existence can be doubted, seem on the face of it much better?known: solid, three-dimensionally extended, etc.


The Nature of Bodies: The Piece of Wax

- We apprehend a piece of wax via the senses (taste, smell, sight, touch).

- When heated, all its most obvious properties change (smell, colour, shape).

- What stays the same? What is the essential nature of the was? Extension.

- Its essential nature, extension, is grasped not via the senses, but by the mind.

Implications

- It is with the mind, not the senses, that we comprehend bodies.

- Knowledge is the product of understanding, not perception (rationalism, not empiricism).

- Perhaps this might give a clue to how to comprehend the nature of myself, a thinking thing - i.e. through further rational reflection.


Some Conclusions

- I am a 'thinking thing', but what type of thing that is remains indeterminate. Definitely some kind of thing, because all acts require a subject, but it is not clear whether material or immaterial at this stage.

- Bodies are essentially extended things (res extensa), and we know this via our understanding, not perception.

- Implicitly, then, there is a contrast between thinking things (res cogitans) and extended things (res extensa), but we shall have to wait until the 6th Meditation for this to be made explicit.

- On his journey so far, Descartes has douted all his pre-existing beliefs. The only thing he knows for sure is that he exists, but all he can say about himself is that he is a thing that thinks. It's on the basis of that small foundation that he wants to rebuild the entire edifice of human knowledge.


Questions

Read the 2nd Meditation and think about these questions:

- Is the Cogito an argument, an intuition, or a necessary conditon?

- What, if anything, does Descartes prove to exist with the Cogito?

- What does Descartes seek to demonstarte with the example of the piece of was?

Descartes on the Cogito的評論 (共 條)

分享到微博請遵守國家法律
黔西县| 光泽县| 永靖县| 九龙城区| 额敏县| 绥化市| 麻栗坡县| 玉屏| 汤阴县| 呼伦贝尔市| 北碚区| 房山区| 手游| 泽普县| 永吉县| 巴东县| 千阳县| 沈阳市| 万年县| 云梦县| 米林县| 静海县| 乾安县| 仙游县| 南岸区| 永和县| 阿鲁科尔沁旗| 营口市| 永春县| 晋宁县| 班玛县| 沧源| 博客| 凤山市| 山阳县| 华亭县| 马龙县| 常德市| 安阳市| 马山县| 古田县|