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Single Idea 3608
[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 1. Dualism
]
Full Idea
I could pretend that I had no body, and that there was no world or place that I was in, but I could not, for all that, pretend that I did not exist.
Gist of Idea
I can deny my body and the world, but not my own existence
Source
René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §4.32)
Book Ref
Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.54
A Reaction
He makes the (in my opinion) appalling blunder of thinking that because he can pretend that he has no body, that therefore he might not have one. I can pretend that gold is an unusual form of cheese. However, "I don't exist" certainly sounds wrong.
The
22 ideas
from 'A Discourse on Method'
3600
|
Slow and accurate thought makes the greatest progress
[Descartes]
|
3601
|
Most things in human life seem vain and useless
[Descartes]
|
1581
|
Greeks elevate virtues enormously, but never explain them
[Descartes]
|
3602
|
Almost every daft idea has been expressed by some philosopher
[Descartes]
|
3603
|
Methodical thinking is cautious, analytical, systematic, and panoramic
[Descartes, by PG]
|
3604
|
When rebuilding a house, one needs alternative lodgings
[Descartes]
|
3605
|
We can believe a thing without knowing we believe it
[Descartes]
|
1583
|
In morals Descartes accepts the conventional, but rejects it in epistemology
[Roochnik on Descartes]
|
3606
|
I was searching for reliable rock under the shifting sand
[Descartes]
|
3607
|
In thinking everything else false, my own existence remains totally certain
[Descartes]
|
3608
|
I can deny my body and the world, but not my own existence
[Descartes]
|
3609
|
I am a thinking substance, which doesn't need a place or material support
[Descartes]
|
3610
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Truth is clear and distinct conception - of which it is hard to be sure
[Descartes]
|
3611
|
Understanding, rather than imagination or senses, gives knowledge
[Descartes]
|
3612
|
Clear and distinct conceptions are true because a perfect God exists
[Descartes]
|
3614
|
A machine could speak in response to physical stimulus, but not hold a conversation
[Descartes]
|
3613
|
Reason is universal in its responses, but a physical machine is constrained by its organs
[Descartes]
|
3615
|
Little reason is needed to speak, so animals have no reason at all
[Descartes]
|
3616
|
The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations
[Descartes]
|
3617
|
I aim to find the principles and causes of everything, using the seeds within my mind
[Descartes]
|
3618
|
Only experiments can settle disagreements between rival explanations
[Descartes]
|
16686
|
God has established laws throughout nature, and implanted ideas of them within us
[Descartes]
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