Ren Descartes

Cogito ergo sum

Ren Descartes
Born near Tours, France in 1596
He was educated at the Jesuit
Collge Royale, in La Flche
Due to poor health, he was
allowed to stay in bed until late
in the morning, and he formed
the habit of meditating

Method
1. Never accept anything as true unless you

know it to be such
2. Divide difficulties into as many parts as

possible (reduction into simples)

3. Begin with the simplest facts/objects of

study first and slowly progress toward

increasingly difficult ones
4. Review constantly, to ensure you have not

missed anything

Meditation #1:Skeptical
Doubts
Descartes begins by doubting the existence
of all things
The doubt here, is temporary
Goal: a new, firm foundation, not subject to
change/doubt
He doubts common, general principles like,
the senses

Meditation #1:Skeptical
Doubts
Descartes said that while he couldnt doubt all his
beliefs he could at least doubt basic pillars (like
the senses)
* one thing he did not doubt was his belief in god
Thought experiment: imagine a scenario which
pushes your concept and intuition of something.
Its not real, you take concepts that are clear to
you and then push them.
E.g. Platos Ring of Gyges

Meditation #1:Skeptical
Doubts
4 Waves of Doubting:
1. The senses skepticism of the body
2. Dreams- how do we know were not dreaming?
Could you be in an experience machine?
3. What if God has deceived me? he is all
powerful
4. Evil Demon/Genius instead of God, theres
an evil genius and thus life is purposeless

Meditation #1:Skeptical
Doubts
Observation: our senses lie to us
E.g. when we see an object that is far away,
it appears to be small
Therefore, it is impossible for us to
perceive anything to be true

Much like this

Meditation #2:Cogito
Ergo Sum & The Wax
Argument
Descartes aims to express absolute certainty
through the statement cogito ergo sum or I
think therefore I am
All beliefs that have been based on the senses
must be considered false
But, does falsehood of the sensory mean that
he does not exist?
No, because if can convince himself that his
beliefs are false, there must an I to convince

Discuss
Cogito ergo sum true
or false?

Meditation #2:Cogito
Ergo Sum & The Wax
Argument contd

Still, the Meditator (Descartes) remains

puzzled

Why do I know what the body is but have a

difficult time identify what the I that thinks
is?
Consider how we come to know a piece of
wax

Is it through the senses or by some other

means?

Meditation #2:Cogito
Ergo Sum & The Wax
Argument contd
He first considers what he can know about
the piece of wax by means of the senses:
its taste, smell, color, shape, size,
hardness, etc.

Meditation #2:Cogito
Ergo Sum & The Wax
Argument contd

Descartes then asks what happens when

the piece of wax is placed near the fire and
melted

Meditation #2:Cogito
Ergo Sum & The Wax
Argument contd
All of these sensible qualities change, so
that, for instance, it is now soft when
before it was hard
Nonetheless, the same piece of wax still
remains
Our knowledge that the solid piece of wax
and the melted piece of wax are the same
cannot come through the senses since all
of its sensible properties have
changed

Meditation #2:Cogito
Ergo Sum & The Wax
Argument contd
The wax seems to remain flexible
(bendable) and mutable (changeable) and
always extended (stretched out in
space/time) thing
The imagination cannot run through all the
possible changes included under mutability
The wax can be extended in ways that I
cannot accurately imagine

On the Mind/Body
Divide
BODY: You can doubt that you have a body.
MIND: You cant doubt that you are thinking.
BODY: A body (like a worm, brain, orange)
can be sliced many times. They are divisible.
A mind is not.
There is more than one way of being, not just
physical.

Is the taste of coffee in

the coffee?

OR

Question
What does the Wax Argument show? What
is it meant to show? Does it succeed?