Descartes’ “I Think, Therefore I Am”: Justification and Impact
Descartes’ Methodological Doubt and “I Think, Therefore I Am”
Subject:
Reasons to justify methodological doubt and arrival at the first principle of Cartesian philosophy: “I think, therefore I am.”
Key Ideas:
- The senses deceive us, so what we perceive through them is false.
- Since we err, everything we had considered proven should be rejected.
- Thoughts are presented to us both when awake and asleep, so our perceptions are no more real than illusions.
- It is impossible to doubt everything, because the act
Descartes’ Philosophy: Cogito, God, and Certainty
To understand Descartes’ philosophy, one must grasp a fundamental truth: doubting everything leads to the realization that there is someone who doubts, and therefore, a thinking intelligence exists. From this, Descartes concludes the existence of thought, famously stated in Latin as “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), which he considers the first certainty. It is the only knowledge that can assert its own existence.
An analysis of this first certainty reveals that existence is recognized
Read MoreUnderstanding Determinism and Human Freedom
Cosmological Determinism
Cosmological determinism: the destination.
The Stoics saw a need to find out what is the order of the cosmos to know how we behave in it, and it resorted to the doctrine of Heraclitus of Ephesus, who said that everything is explained for some reason, and as the number of reasons cannot be infinite, there must be a prime reason, according to them, that happiness is aware that any exterior is in the hands of fate, trying to ensure peace of mind. This begins to open a distinction
Read MoreMarx’s Historical Materialism: Alienation and Ideology
Marx’s Historical Materialism
The Concept of Alienation
It’s like the action of social movements conveying what is proper.
Marx considered the alienated work in modern society as the fundamental total alienation. In Marx’s conception, human work is existential activity. Through work, therefore, man develops his being in history and establishes himself as a social being.
In the relationship between the subject (worker) and the object (product produced), the object is the result of the subject’s transformative
Read MoreUnderstanding Moral Principles: Freedom, Action, and Obligation
The elements of moral fact are: the freedom that is central to the moral fact, and acquires moral dimension when it comes into the privacy of individuals and extends to their community. Human action is a learned activity, rational, conscious, intentionally affective, and free, whereas humans make their means, ends, circumstances, and consequences based on internal processes (biological, learned) and external (social and environmental) factors. As humans socially encounter a culture, morality becomes
Read MoreKant’s Transcendental Dialectic: Reason and Ideas
The Transcendental Dialectic
To discuss the transcendental dialectic, we must first consider the use of reason. Reason has two primary purposes:
- A theoretical use, which is the scientific application, used to understand things as they are. It organizes experience at two levels: a sensible level and a level of understanding.
- A practical use, which is the moral application. It guides us toward our goals, teaching us how to use our freedom to decide, not as things are, but as they should be.
Ideas of Reason
We
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