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Eh, there's a lot of issues with the cogito, in that the statement Descarte arrives at is nowhere near as fundamental as he seems to think it is. It presumes an
by s_kilk 7y ago
Eh, there's a lot of issues with the cogito, in that the statement Descarte arrives at is nowhere near as fundamental as he seems to think it is. It presumes an "I", subject of language, capable of evaluating its own thought, a system of language, etc, and presumes a mode of being, but then the being comes after the identification of the being itself, and so on...
It's all so much more confused than most folks, including Descarte, think it is.
He does identify something worth naming, but gets the cause and effect all mixed up. It'd be more sensible to say that I am, therefore I have the possibility of thought, and the possibility of using thought to identify my own being.
Thought being a material process which occurs in-and-of the world.
- claudiawerner 7y ago>It'd be more sensible to say that I am, therefore I have the possibility of thought, and the possibility of using thought to identify my own being. Would it be? You're already positing that "I am" which there isn't a reason to believe if you were deceived about everything your senses tell you. At best, to start with "I am" simply re-raises the common objection to the cogito which is that Descartes assumes the "I" to begin with. It doesn't get you out of that bind. Nevertheless, there are contemporary defenses of the cogito, e.g. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41501714?seq=1 https://www.jstor.org/stable/41501714?seq=1