In René Descartes’ Meditations of the First Philosophy: Third Edition, he remarks “I am... precisely nothing but a thinking thing” (p. 27). The possibility that Descartes is nothing but a thinking thing brings in the question of the physical existence of his bodies or even if he exists in the first place. Once Descartes has established that he is a thinking thing, he is convinced that as long as he is thinking he must exist. The action of sensing his surroundings is a form of thought. As long as he is forming thoughts he believes that is enough proof of his existence. If he would stop thinking he would cease to exist in the first place. As a thinking thing he has the ability to sense his surroundings and be conscious. Because you can be dreaming
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Descartes makes this observation when he is considering how reliable his senses are while he compares his dreams to his daily reality. Our sense and minds can misguide us in many different ways and there must be a logical way to sort out the true and false outcomes. Our senses give us the information we need to perceive what is going on outside of our heads. Our past experiences with the knowledge we obtain through our senses help us judge and make connections to what exists and what doesn’t. If the characteristics of an object fit the description that you know through your senses, you can confirm that the object exists. Contrarily, in some situations you cannot trust your senses to the extent you wish to. Things we know to be true and things we perceive with our senses as true can be seen as different things. We have many information sources for us to perceive different things from. Descartes uses the example of the sun, “by means of this idea the sun appears to me be to quite small. But there is another idea, one derived from astronomical reasoning...” (p.27). With this example he is illustrating that we cannot always depend on our senses when other factors, external factors that our senses do not take into consideration, have been
Descartes makes this observation when he is considering how reliable his senses are while he compares his dreams to his daily reality. Our sense and minds can misguide us in many different ways and there must be a logical way to sort out the true and false outcomes. Our senses give us the information we need to perceive what is going on outside of our heads. Our past experiences with the knowledge we obtain through our senses help us judge and make connections to what exists and what doesn’t. If the characteristics of an object fit the description that you know through your senses, you can confirm that the object exists. Contrarily, in some situations you cannot trust your senses to the extent you wish to. Things we know to be true and things we perceive with our senses as true can be seen as different things. We have many information sources for us to perceive different things from. Descartes uses the example of the sun, “by means of this idea the sun appears to me be to quite small. But there is another idea, one derived from astronomical reasoning...” (p.27). With this example he is illustrating that we cannot always depend on our senses when other factors, external factors that our senses do not take into consideration, have been