Cartesian Remedy PDF

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The Cartesian Remedy as taught by DeGaynsford...

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Descartes - Discourse on the Method, Part IV, p.127. Main Conclusion: My existence and identity are entirely distinct from and independent of anything else (including the world and any material thing; including my body) Main Premises 1. I am thinking therefore I exist 2. I cannot pretend I do not exist, but I can pretend everything else does not exist 3. If I cease thinking, I have no reason to believe I exist 4. I am a certain sort of thinking substance Arguments for the Main Premises For (1) Cogito Argument From (2) to (4) Argument from doubt For (3) to (4) Argument from Not-thinking Facing the Sceptical Situation, Descartes though that the remedy for this lies, not in flight from doubt, but from wholly immersing himself within doubt.  Scepticism can be made to undermine itself Immersion in doubt leads Descartes to a truth about which he is individualistically certain  I am thinking, therefore I exist Truths can serve as a foundation for further knowledge, so he builds on them

Premise 1: I am thinking, therefore I exist (Cogito) Immersion into the Sceptical Situation allows Descartes to inquire in a certain form in order to reach the goal of the inquiry. This enables Descartes to proceed individualistically - without reliance on anyone else - his own doubts and reasoning about them are sufficient for him to acquire the knowledge he claims This knowledge is high threshold, certain and indubitable - process of doubting confirms to his own satisfaction that he is thinking - ruling out the hypothesis that what he then believes ( I exist) is false This provides him with a foundation (first principle) - meeting his requirements if beliefs are to be knowledge-advancing These enable him to meet the fourth requirement - they provide him with a method for acquiring and assessing beliefs, enabling him to acquire further knowledge Descartes way of facing up to the Sceptical Situation ensure that theory of knowledge is treated as basic

Premise 2: I cannot pretend I do not exist, but I can pretend everything else does not exist Offering two different but mutually supportive arguments to two related but notionally distinct conclusions Premise 2 contains the first - the Argument from Doubt Descartes supposes that what he think and experiences is under control of omnipotent deceiver, out to deceive him in every possible way Thus he may doubt everything; that he has a body, that there is a world or any place for him to be in; that he has a past; that anyone or indeed anything else exists On the other hand - especially in this situation - he cannot doubt that the himself exists

Premise 3: If I cease thinking, I have no reason to believe I exist Argument from Not-Thinking Able to acquire reason to believe he exists from a 'mere fact'

Would have been unable to acquire such reason if just one element of that situation were different: namely 'if I had merely ceased thinking'.

Premise 4: I am a certain sort of thinking substance Draws two conclusions about himself from the two mutually supportive arguments in premises 1, 2 and 3. Takes the first to show that, whatever he is, it must be something independent of any body, world, place, past or any other thing. From the second to show that it is just one element -thinking and nothing but thinking.

Descartes and the Mind: What kind of thing is the mind?  The activity of thinking  That which has thoughts  Embraces both, uses the term 'mind' to cover the activity of thinking and what has thoughts What are the characteristics of the mental? Mental is everything of which we are aware, it is divided into two a. Operations of the intellect/perception (includes sensory perception, imagination and pure understanding) b. Operations of the will/violation (include desire, aversion, assertion, denial, doubt) All intellectual activities as involving 'ideas' which he defined as mental items of which we have inner awareness and which represent things distinct from themselves. Do minds relate to the material world? Minds = immaterial substances without spatial dimensions whose essence is to think, to be conscious, to doubt Material world = non-thinking substance of which there is only one instance, stretched throughout space As a thinking substance he does relate to the material world

Evaluation: Validity: arguments from 2-4 and from 3 -4 are invalid Truth: Descartes ought to reject 1-3 Soundness: no Upshot: good reason to regard the main conclusion as true? No...