Methodic Doubt
Rene Descartes purposely identifies his work as “a meditation” and presents his thoughts using the first person. He doubts everything that he has admitted to up until this point because he feels that the senses can be deceiving. The senses, according to Descartes, were bad indicators to what is real because one, there is the chance of error and two; the actual experience of dreaming is misleading. Descartes thought that by doubting everything and anything, he could erase all other knowledge and begin to build from the base up. This idea is like an architects’, being that they must have a solid foundation before they can proceed. His ideas were very systematic, similar to those used by scientists and rational simply because he did not want to just add to things done earlier by others. He began with the determination to doubt all and take nothing for granted. While doing so, he stumbled across one proposition that he could not doubt. And that was his own existence. He stated that after all, the simple act of doubting presupposed something, which was engaging in doubt. This famous proposition is known as “cogito, ergo sum”: I think, ther
With these ideas he is able to state that man can possibly be a rational animal. Then all of a sudden he throws this concept out because he would have had to define what an “animal” and what “rational” meant. After this, he finds that he has a “body,” which consists of body parts: face, hands, and arms. He identifies the body as extended, figured, and able to move in motion. Extended because it occupies space, figured because is has shape and motion, because is can be moved. Then Descartes concludes that the other half of human beings is the soul or mind. This is completely separate from the body in that it is able to think, will, imagine, and understand. Next, Descartes attempts to prove the existence of god. He goes about this with the idea that god is a supremely perfect being, so it follows that there is a necessary existence. An example of necessary existence other than that of god is the idea of mountains and valleys. In order to think of one, you must think of the other. Descartes purposely and deliberately uses the first person in an effective manner. He does this to ensure that he is able to use his personal life experiences as his pro
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Approximate Word count = 796
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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