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Assignment 1 Essay

Marci Smith
Assignment 1 Essay Surprise Ending
January 27, 2015
HUM112 World Cultures
Professor Japola

Assignment 1 Essay

Renee Descartes' Discourse on the Method (Part IV) is what I have chosen to write about for
this assignment. I know that this is not the easiest of choices to write about when comparing the
other two options, but I wanted to challenge myself to look for the surprise ending. Descartes
work is full of philosophic ideals and lived a long time ago from 1596-1650, but I am not going
to focus on that aspect of the writing. Life during his time was much different from our life now,
and it is amazing to see how someone like him had a valid view on life that still has an effect on
people today. What I am looking for is something that I am surprised about in this passage of his
work. What was he describing, what conflict will I read about and could I be surprised by what I
find? Well, looking for a surprise in Descartes, I thought would be like looking for a needle in a
haystack. Boy was I wrong. The shock hit me right in the second paragraph in bold letters. "I am
thinking, therefore I exist (Descartes, 1909).
He begins the section describing a metaphysical meditation so that we can understand
his journey that he is taking here. He is talking about a principle of his thinking. Trying to figure
out a reason for his existence. WHOA! Wait a minute here, is he saying that he is attempting to
put a connection with logical reasoning to human existence? Throughout the passage, he comes
to realize that because he is forming his thoughts, and this is the reason. Is it really that simple
that we exist just because we can think? Can he actually make a substantial conclusion of the
existence? Honestly, I do not know. Can I say because we can think do we understand our soul
and does that allow me to know the human body?
The concept is hard to determine because through the rest of the passage we see that Descartes
continue to surprise us. He starts a thinking battle about God, the mind and imperfection, objects
and the certainty of the existence. Here goes another surprise, he describes Gods existence

Assignment 1 Essay
through geometry. Now that is crazy if you ask me but, what I think it does indeed show a reader
how this could be a revolutionary conception of the human mind. That is some pretty forward
thinking. The literal meaning of "I think; therefore I am" was born, and it still exists (no pun
intended) today.
It is not easy to find a way to dissociate from our existence and say that objects only exist
because I can think that they do. I do not feel that is what Descartes was writing about because
he writes for ideas. However I do feel that the world in which he was writing for was in need of
those concepts, and we have benefited from his "thoughts.

References
Descartes, Ren. Discourse on Method. Vol. XXXIV, Part 1. The Harvard Classics. New York:
P.F. Collier & Son, 190914; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/34/1/. [01/29/2015].
Descartes, Ren. Discourse on Method. 2005 Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting
ones Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences. Johnathan Bennett. Retrieved from
http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfs/descartes1637.pdf. 01/29/2015.