Here skepticism is considered because we lack certainty: what we believe might be false, so our beliefs aren’t knowledge. So he acknowledges that it’s possible that all his beliefs about the world external to his own mind are illusions caused by the demon, corresponding to nothing at all, and so all his beliefs about the external world are false.ĭescartes is usually thought of as considering skepticism, the view that we lack knowledge or justified belief. Descartes cannot prove that this demon does not exist. He thereby doubts all beliefs from his senses and from his faculty of reasoning, since those beliefs could be false.ĭescartes then considers the most extreme reason for doubt: there may exist an evil demon (sometimes translated ‘genius,’ ‘genie,’ or ‘spirit’) who has the power to control all of his thoughts, tricking him into believing anything. He recognizes that his senses might be deceiving him now, since they have deceived him before he might also be reasoning erroneously now, since he has reasoned badly before. His strategy is to doubt, or not believe, any claim that is false or could be false. In the Meditations, Descartes reflects on the fact that he has had many false beliefs, and he sets out to address that problem, with the hope of finding a way to ensure he only has true beliefs and even that scientific research yields only truths as well. But Descartes changes the wording to “I am, I exist” in his most famous (1641) work, Meditations on First Philosophy (called the Meditations for short). The phrase “I think, therefore I am” first appears in Discourse on the Method (1637). This essay explores the meaning of the Cogito, its importance to Descartes, and its legacy for philosophy up to the present day. Perhaps there is no saying more famous in philosophy than this phrase, often known as the “Cogito” after its Latin phrasing, cogito ergo sum. Is your belief here certain? Is there any way that you could believe this, yet your belief be false? Is there any possibility that you are mistaken about this belief? René Descartes (1596-1650) argues you could: this belief, and almost all other beliefs, are not certain.ĭescartes argues that there is one clear exception, however: “I think, therefore I am.” He claims to have discovered a belief that is certain and irrefutable. Think to yourself: “I have some paper in my hand,” “I am in front of a computer” or whatever fits. If you are reading this, then you are probably looking at a screen or a piece of paper.
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