René Descartes

Notes

René Descartes (1596–1650), French philosopher and mathematician, the usual starting point of modern philosophy. Doubted everything he could, found he could not doubt that he was doubting (Cogito, ergo sum), and then rebuilt the world on God's honesty, which is where I get off. Also the source of Mind-body dualism and of Cartesian coordinates.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes

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Certainty

The only candidate for certainty is the position proposed by René Descartes in Cogito, ergo sum: that a thinking thing exists.

My Presuppositions

I exist. Self-awareness implies existence (Descartes' cogito). I can find no way to make sense of the proposition that there is no thinker. Even this, however, I hold with the caution described under Certainty.

Mind-body dualism

I therefore reject substance dualism, the view associated with René Descartes that mind and matter are two distinct kinds of thing.

Cogito, ergo sum

The Latin cogito, ergo sum, usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am",a(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito,_ergo_sum#cite_note-better_translation-1) is the "first principle" of René Descartes's philosophy.

Evil demon

The evil demon, also called the Deus deceptor, malicious demon, or evil genius, is a thought experiment used by René Descartes in his Meditations on First Philosophy (1641). In the first meditation, he imagines a powerful and cunning being…