Parker's Pensées Ep. 65 - I Think, Therefore Descartes Was Right | A Defense of Descartes's Dictum
Feb 12, 2021
Dive into the philosophical depths of Descartes' famous dictum, 'I think, therefore I am.' Explore the criticisms against it and discover how the cogito stands strong as a transcendental argument. Uncover the intriguing links between Descartes and Augustine, as well as their views on skepticism and knowledge. Additionally, see how understanding oneself intertwines with divine comprehension, and how Descartes and C.S. Lewis shape this dialogue. It's a thought-provoking journey through existence and self-knowledge!
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Cogito As Foundational Certainty
- Descartes sought an indubitable foundation by doubting everything until one truth remained.
- The cogito (I am thinking, therefore I exist) survives radical doubt because doubting itself is a form of thinking.
Doubt Presupposes The Doubter
- Doubt is itself a thinking act, so to doubt one's existence entails thinking and thus existence.
- Denying your existence while performing the denial is performatively inconsistent and self-defeating.
Thinking Requires A Thinker
- Thinking is a property that requires a substance to instantiate it, so 'thinking' implies 'a thinker'.
- From awareness of thought one can infer the existence of the subject that has that property.
