Descartes - Manchester University · Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am) Can I exist only in...
Transcript of Descartes - Manchester University · Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am) Can I exist only in...
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Descartes and
Epistemology (part three)
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Cogito Ergo Sum
(I think, therefore I am)
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Can I exist only in a dream?
Alice being dreamt by the Red King …
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Can I exist only in a dream?
Alice being dreamt by the Red King …
Mais non!
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I exist … no matter what.
Even if I’m being deceived, I still exist (as one deceived).
Even with bad hair, I still exist
(as one with bad hair).
cogito ergo sum
Even if I’m dreaming, I still
exist as a dreamer.
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The Cartesian
Self
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What am I?
I know that I am …
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What am I?
I know that I am …
… but not what
I am.
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What am I?
Am I a body?
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What am I?
Am I a body with a soul?
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What am I?
But who knows what
souls are?
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What am I?
So I must just be a body…
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What am I? … except
I’m not sure there are any bodies, even though I’m
certain that I exist.
? ?
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What am I?
The soul is what thinks, so I must be
a soul …
et voila!
… a res cogitans.
… I must be
a soul
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Rebuilding the World
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Rebuilding the World
This is what I do in Meditations
Three through Six. What exists
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What do I know exists?
I know that I exist …
(2nd Med.)
What exists
Res cogitans
Latin res: thing cogitans: that thinks
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What do I know exists?
And I have ideas, so they also exist (as attributes of
my mind)… (3rd Med.)
What exists
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What do I know exists? I have an idea of a dog, so that idea exists (even if the
dog might not). (3rd Med.)
What exists
?
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What do I know exists? I also have ideas of
ideas, like my memory of the dog
(these are more faint).
What exists
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What do I know exists?
And I have ideas of numbers, unicorns,
angels, God …. (3rd Med.)
What exists
7
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What do I know exists?
What exists
7
And I have ideas of numbers, unicorns,
angels, God …. (3rd Med.)
But do I have reason to think that any of
these also exist outside my mind?
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Turn to your Neighbor
Can Descartes be certain that any of these things existing
as ideas in his mind also exist outside his mind?
Why or why not?
What exists
7
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Descartes’ Solution: God
What exists
7
I — as a res cogitans — am powerful
enough to create all these ideas, except
one…
Latin res: thing cogitans: that thinks
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7
Descartes’ Solution: God
What exists
… my idea of God.
(3rd Med.)
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7
Descartes’ Solution: God
What exists My idea of God is more
perfect than me, so I cannot be its cause. The idea can’t come from me, so it has to
came from God. … my idea of
God. (3rd Med.)
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7
Descartes’ Solution: God
What exists So I’m not alone! God also exists!
(3rd Med.)
Farewell, solipsism
Latin solus: alone ipse: self
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7
Descartes’ Solution: God
What exists
And, God causes not only my idea of God; God also causes me!
(3rd Med.)
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7
Problem of Human Error
What exists
But hold on… If I’m the product of a
perfect being, why am I imperfect? (4th Med.)
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Problem of Human Error I’ve made many mistakes in the past. How is this
possible, if God made me? (4th Med.)
7+5=13! No, I’m sorry René, but you
are very wrong. Merde…
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Problem of Human Error
The answer is 12, Mademoiselle Pompidou!
Trés bon, Jacques!
Merde…
Perhaps I had jumped to
conclusions: I chose to
believe what was not yet “clear and
distinct” to my understanding.
(4th Med.)
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Problem of Human Error
So remember, René: Don’t answer until the numbers before you are “clear and
distinct”!
If I restrain my will to believe only what is
clear and distinct, I will
not err. (4th Med.)
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Re-claiming the External World
Alors, I have clear and distinct ideas of objects outside my mind insofar
as they are objects of mathematics. So they do exist.
(5th Med.)
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Re-claiming the External World
So: First, I prove that I exist, then
God, then the physical universe. All in six days! Time for a nap …
(5th-6th Med.)
Descartes at Rest
Descartes’ Order of Proof
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Cartesian Dualism
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What Exists
Other than God, there are two
kinds of substance: mind
and matter
Substance (“what is real”)
Mind: whose essence is to think. Matter: whose essence is to be extended.
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What Exists
Other than God, there are two
kinds of substance: mind
and matter
Substance (“what is real”)
Mind: whose essence is to think. Matter: whose essence is to be extended.
And what am I? A strange combination
of both mind and matter, soul and
body.
Mind
Matter
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What Exists
Other than God, there are two
kinds of substance: mind
and matter
Substance (“what is real”)
Mind: whose essence is to think. Matter: whose essence is to be extended.
Human beings are souls attached to bodies; all other animals are only
bodies.
Mind
Matter
(No one home)
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Mind-Body Interaction Light strikes the retina on my eyes, causing a nervous excitation that travels to my brain, and from thence to my soul, whereupon I see you,
dear Madame!
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Mind-Body Interaction Light strikes the retina on my eyes, causing a nervous excitation that travels to my brain, and from thence to my soul, whereupon I see you,
dear Madame!
Having seen you, Monsieur, my soul responds with a nervous excitation to my
brain, which travels to my lips and vocal chords, such that I say what I’m saying
right now: “Bonjour!” And my heart flutters ever so
slightly.
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Mind-Body Interaction
Nice wig…
But how can an immaterial soul affect a material body, and
vice versa?
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Other Minds?
Ah, another human being. Or, at least a
human body…
Mind?
Matter
I see the body of a sexy 17th century philosopher; but
as for the mind…?
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The Pineal Gland