Descartes View Of Human Nature 184g41

Rene Descartes 1596-1650 Believed that “we” are just our minds Used a deductive proof Dualism: believed that mind and body are two different kinds of substances

Batman without Robin? I feel somehow incomplete, yet still myself….

I have a body, but I am a mind.... I have a body: I possess it, it “belongs” to me, but it is only had, it is not “me” or “what I am.” Like a captain has his ship, a father has a son, Batman has Robin, I have a brand new car, I have class this morning, I had spaghetti last night, I have a headache. To have something suggests that I could do without it, that losing it will not mean the loss of me. I continue to exist if I miss class, or lose my brand new car. BUT: Can you have a father without a son?

I have a body, but I am a mind.... I am a mind: it isn't just something I possess, but it identifies me, it is “me” or “what I am.” To be something means that I am identical

with this thing; it would go out of existence if I went out of existence; and if it went out of existence, that would be to destroy me!

I have a body, but I am a mind.... So if you really

want to hurt someone, mess with their minds .... ouch!

Other possibilities? I have a mind, but I am a body? I have a mind, and I have a body, but I am something else, some other thing.... I have a mind, and I have a body, but I am nothing... I am a body and I am a mind, these are not two separate things, but somehow ed or connected.

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Can “I” be a mind and a body?

Knowledge without a body?

Not if mind and body are two separate substances. (A substance is a basic existing reality; something that exists in its own right.)

If mind (the consciousness part) can be separated from body, does body (the brain, senses) play any role in knowledge or self-knowledge?

One thing (“I”) cannot be two things (mind, body).

Would a ghost (a soul in heaven) know its surroundings? How would it see what it is front of it (no eyes)? How would it hear someone talking to it (no ears)? How would it its past (no brain)? How would it think about what it sees or even re (no brain)? How would it even think (be aware) of its thinking or itself?

But if both mind and body have to be ed together for me to be “me,” does the idea of life after death make any sense at all? But if mind can be separated from body, does body (the brain, senses) play any role in knowledge or self-knowledge?

You’d be a poor little ghost....

Descartes’ proof that we are minds Descartes: “We can

be absolutely certain of our mental experience... …that means No Doubt of it!”

Descartes’ Evidence: deductive argument Inductive Argument… Looks for facts to theory Draws an inference as

the most likely explanation for what we experience in the world. Produces likely

conclusions

Deductive Argument… Starts with indisputable or self-evidence statements (truths)

Descartes’ Argument Even if someone convinces me that I Can’t fool am not really me! thinking....

Could I be mistaken about whether I think?

Draws an inference on the

basis of logically correct arguments

Produces necessary

conclusions (cannot not be true)

…he/she would have to make me think in order to convince me I don't think!

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And if I am thinking.... Then I must exist!

So either way I must be thinking!

Cogito, Ergo Sum.

Another

This is an indisputably true statement!

Descartes own words… Doubtless… I exist, since I am deceived; and, let him deceive me as he may, he can never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I shall be conscious that I am something.

So … I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time it is expressed by me, or conceived in my mind.

Descartes’ Cogito The premise (“I think”) of the first

argument is incorrigible—no possible set of circumstances could reasonably bring you to doubt its truth The premises of the other arguments (“I walk,” “I drink,” “I eat green eggs and ham”) are corrigible—you could be wrong about them. That’s why those arguments do not work!

indisputably true statement!

Descartes’ Cogito Why does this work: – I think therefore I am (Cogito ergo sum)

But these do not? – I eat green eggs and ham, therefore I am – I drink, therefore I am – I walk, therefore I am

What am I? I must be a thinking thing. A “res cogitans”

(Fancy Latin philosophy talk for “thinking thing”) (Deductive inference drawn from previous statements)

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What about my body?

The Matrix possibility Just like Neo was

I can doubt that my body exists.

fooled into believing he was really living an entire life....

I can imagine that I don't have a body, but am only being fooled into believing it exists...

The matrix possibility When he was

just connected to the matrix. Another ouch!

Descartes imagines this possibility That we could really be disembodied

spirits, like angels… That evil God-like demons could be powerful enough to mess with our minds and our thinking… That they could use this power to fool us into believing that we have bodies… When we really do not!

Except in The Matrix, Neo still had a body!

Angels fooled into believing they have bodies… Well, how do you picture that anyway?

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Agent Smith

Possible versus Plausible

Maybe Agent

Descartes just thinks this is possible...

Smith is really an evil demon?

That doesn't mean he thinks this is “plausible” or “likely” the case. Is the mere possibility enough for his argument?

Possible versus Plausible

Possible versus Plausible Is The Matrix

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Possible: no logical contradiction.|

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Plausible: could possibly happen.

plausible or just possible?

Possible versus Plausible

The argument...

Is the Easter

If I cannot doubt the existence of my thinking...

Bunny possible or plausible?

But I can doubt the existence of my body... Then my body has to be a different kind of thing than my mind. I am my mind.... So I am not body. I have one. But it isn't what I am!

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Cool A philosophical

proof that mind is separate from body, and that we are each of us minds, not bodies. That's one for the philosophy books!

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