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Descarte (end of 2nd meditation descarte concludes 'I am, I exist'…
Descarte
end of 2nd meditation descarte concludes 'I am, I exist' and 'I am a thinking thing'
I am I exist
argument
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C Therefore, “something” must exist. Let us call this “I”.
Therefore, I am, I exist.
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I am a thinking thing
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Thinking – at very least he knows he doubts (can’t doubt doubt without doubting); doubt is an act of thinking
Therefore, what he does know that is certain and indubitable is:
I am, I exist, I am a thinking thing,
EVALUATION strong, deductively valid argument
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Wax argument
How can what is doubted be more clear than what is certain? To explore this he considers a piece of wax. The wax is an example of something that is corporeal He considers the wax through his senses. The sense information is liable to change (i.e. the wax changes form when melted). Yet his knowledge of the wax is constant.
Descartes questions whether he knows the wax through his imagination.understanding of the piece of wax is wider than all the particular examples he might “imagine.” Therefore, the imagination cannot be the sources of his knowledge of the wax.
He concludes that it must be by mental scrutiny alone that he knows the wax. The example of the wax leads Descartes to accept that he does
know his mind more clearly and distinctly than corporeal things.
Substance Dualism
Substance dualism is the conclusion Descartes comes to in the 6th meditation that the mind (non-extended thinking thing) and the body (extended, non-thinking thing) are different.
EVALUTION introspection, Phineas Gage, interactionism