23
votes
Does Dissociative ego disorder challenge Descartes‘ „cogito-argument“?
"I think, therefore I am" does not imply that the person thinking and being is eternal. It just says that one cannot doubt one's own existence, as and when one thinks about it. If and when ...
- 3,284
15
votes
How does a thought imply there is a thinker in "I think therefore I am"?
The "I" of the Cogito does not stand for Descartes, or for the subject, or for the subject's self. It stands for the thing thinking the Cogito when the subject thinks the Cogito.
The ...
- 9,882
12
votes
Is my argument against Descartes's "I think, therefore I am", logically sound?
Disclaimer, some of this post may not make sense to you, as the OP has rewritten his argument numerous times, and I am not deleting any of this so, skip to the end for newest most relevant information....
- 331
12
votes
Does Dissociative ego disorder challenge Descartes‘ „cogito-argument“?
It depends on which chapter of the Meditations we are focused on. What’s in the second meditation is merely that one cannot doubt their own existence, since the very doubting necessitates that one ...
- 1,099
10
votes
Accepted
Sum ergo cogito?
Does thinking imply existing? Descartes argues yes: it is impossible for anything to think which does not exist.
Does existing imply thinking? Most people would say no. Most would say that a rock ...
- 1,930
8
votes
Accepted
Why did Descartes claim that animals have no souls if they have the pituitary?
Actually, it was the pineal gland that he attributed the soul to.
As for its presence in animals, he never discusses it, and therefore we can not know why he dismissed it, or even if he was aware of ...
- 2,316
7
votes
Accepted
Descartes' Demon
Many would are argue that you are right, the demon is still successful in his deception.
DesCartes claims in the cogito that he has proven the existence of an "I", since for there to be deception, ...
- 27.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Nietzche quoting Descartes... without source
Descartes' Meditations (1641), III.2 :
illud omne esse verum, quòd valde clare & distincte percipio.
John Veitch English translation of 1901 :
all that is very clearly and distinctly ...
- 41.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Rationalism and Catholicism / Protestantism
To suggest a different perspective, Whitehead writes the following: (page 8-9)
The Reformation and the scientific movement were two aspects of the historical revolt which was the dominant ...
- 19.8k
7
votes
Was there a "mechanist" program of early rationalists, like Descartes and Leibniz?
Mechanist (or mechanical) philosophy, in the original sense, meant the rejection of "substantial forms", i.e. forms with causal powers, such as souls, postulated by scholastics (who drew on some vague ...
- 44.2k
7
votes
Accepted
An Argument against Descartes's radical doubt
The simplest and most powerful argument according to my opinion is the following:
There is no reason for the universe to give the impression of
something while something completely different (and not ...
- 2,948
6
votes
Accepted
In Wittgenstein's Picture theory, why is self-awareness (e.g. Cogito ergo sum in Descartes) not an a priori true atomic thought?
The thing is, that for the early Wittgenstein the Cogito Ergo Sum was just not true. So the Cogito could not be true a priori for him.
Like David Hume, Wittgenstein believed that the Cartesian Ego, ...
- 7,504
6
votes
Accepted
A second indubitable axiom
You have actually anticipated Descartes himself in this question. After he established his own existence, as a mind, a thinking being, with the Cogito (I think therefore I am) he proceeded to ask ...
- 7,504
6
votes
Accepted
What Latin phrase did Descartes use to denote his Cartesian demon
From meditation 1:
, sed genium aliquem malignum eundemque summe potentem et callidum omnem suam industriam in eo posuisse, ut me falleret: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23306/23306-h/23306-h.htm)...
- 25k
6
votes
Accepted
Can Cogito, ergo sum be formalized?
Jaakko Hintikka, the Finnish philosopher and logician, has, since the early 1960's written several articles about the underlying logic (or lack of logic) of the cogito:
Existential Presuppositions ...
- 4,784
5
votes
Accepted
What does Hegel think of Descartes' argument in Meditation 4?
Hegel comments negatively on this argument in Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (vol 1. p. 227)
It is frequently said that in his will man is infinite; while in his understanding, his power of ...
- 25k
5
votes
Is 'cogito ergo sum' false?
No, the Cogito cannot possibly be proved wrong, even though many philosophers throughout history argued exactly that. However, most philosophers got the Cogito wrong.
There are two main ways ...
- 9,882
5
votes
Descartes and feral children
Descartes believed in the theory of innate ideas, the theory that not all of our knowledge is from education and experience and at least some of our knowledge is knowledge that we are born with.
...
- 27.9k
5
votes
Accepted
How do I read the SEP citations for a particular author where there are numbers at the end of the sentence as a citation?
See :
Note on references and abbreviations: References to Descartes' works as found herein use the pagination of the Adam and Tannery volumes (AT), Oeuvres de Descartes, 11 vols. The citations give ...
- 41.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Did Descartes really doubt the existence of God?
The answer depends on the meaning of "really". The structure of Meditations is that Descartes sets out to doubt everything, no holes barred. At this point he is presumably doubting the ...
- 44.2k
5
votes
Formal versus Objective Reality in Descartes
Interesting and nagging problem. But recall Gassendi :
You do in fact.. .distinguish between objective and formal reality, where 'formal reality,' as I understand it, applies to the idea itself ...
- 36.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Was Descartes the first one to approach metaphysics epistemologically?
If we invoke Descartes we should remember that he uses the Ontological Argument - or his own version of that protean argument. The original Ontological Argument as deployed by St Anselm (1077 or 1078 ...
- 36.1k
5
votes
Accepted
free will without evil
Alvin Plantinga has argued that even an omnipotent God might not be able to create a world in which free creatures always 'go right', and never morally wrong ('evil') in their chosen actions.
Free ...
- 36.1k
5
votes
Descartes on Llull's logic
Discours de la méthode (1637), Second Partie, page 18 [Édition Adam et Tannery] :
en les examinant, je pris garde que, pour la Logique, ses syllogismes & la pluspart de ses autres instructions ...
- 41.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Where to find Descartes’ violin player analogy?
There is a Corpus Descartes that allows to search for a word in all of his writings. It seems however that there is no "violon/ist/" or closely related item. Searching for "instrument" gives a ...
- 3,734
5
votes
Can Cogito, ergo sum be formalized?
OP: "Can Cogito, ergo sum be formalized?"
Heidegger does not think it can be formalised without refinement. He says one cannot begin with a worldless "I". From the start, the self ...
- 7,650
5
votes
How does a thought imply there is a thinker in "I think therefore I am"?
Who is thinking? You. So you exist.
The "I think therefore I am" is in response to question "What really exist?". The phrase response by saying that "Atleast I exist. I can be ...
- 1,100
5
votes
Accepted
What logical arguments have been made to say an effect cannot be greater than its cause?
I assume that the passage you rephrase as Descartes’ claim “no effect can be greater than its cause” is
Iam vero lumine naturali manifestum est tantundem ad minimum esse
debere in causa efficiente et ...
- 42.3k
4
votes
Accepted
what is the difference between Descartes and Quentin Meillassoux in understanding the term of "Cogito"?
TL;DR
Meillassoux' Cogito shares the notion with the famous one from Descartes because it serves the same function in the sense that it is thought as providing a firm basis for all future philosophy/...
- 14.8k
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