Descartes meditation 2

In this meditation Descartes has the ultimate realist counter attack and finds his foundation.

There are two arguments in this meditation.

Argument 1 cogito ergo sum

I think

I am

There is a missing premise in this argument. Descartes thinks that it is obvious that for thinking to happen there has to be something that does the thinking. Further, the phrase” I exist” means the same thing as the phrase “I am”.

The with the missing premise stated looks like this:

I think

In order to think a thing must exist

I exist

What kind of thing does the “I” refer to in this argument?

“I” is just a thinking thing.

All that Descartes has proved is that he has a mind (thought bubble). He has not proved that he has a body or that an external world exists or that the thoughts in his mind other than “I exist” are true.

Mind Body dualism

Descartes thinks that the universe is divided up into two kinds of substance, mental substance and physical substance. All that he has proved so far is within the realm of the mental.

A B C

I think I drink Princess Elizabeth thinks

I am I am She is

All of these arguments are valid, but Descartes thinks that only A is sound. Be sure that you can explain the problems with B and C.

Argument 2

The evil demon is either fooling me or not fooling me.

If the evil demon is not fooling me, then I am confident in my knlg that I exist.

If the evil demon is fooling me, then I have to exist in order to be fooled.

I exist.

Problems for Descartes

1) the problem of other minds.

a. I can never know if other people have thoughts or if their minds even exist.

2) the mind/body problem.

a. If the mental world and the physical world are radically distinct, then how can they interact? But they do interact all of the time because my body can cause me to think things and my mind can cause things to happen to my body.