Example Of Essay On What Is The Significance Of Descartes' Cogito Argument How Does It Relate To The

The Cogito theory developed by Descartes gave him a foundation to establish his philosophy, which was without any doubt. The times, during which Descartes lived, everything was changing and the people around him had started to defy the beliefs that had once been standing strong. Descartes stepped forward and totally rejected the science of Aristotle that had been accepted widely by the people and gave a mechanical view regarding the world. Descartes rejected metaphysics, put forward epistemology, and changed the question of ‘why’ to ‘how.’ Descartes was one of the very few philosophers who had not had any formal training in art, which is why he took a novel view approach to the world.
Cogito ergo sum, ‘I think, therefore I am’ was proposed by Descartes which means that thinking about the existence on one self proves that ‘I’ do exist to do all the thinking. Descartes also states that we ourselves cannot doubt our own existence because we are still thinking even when we doubt. This particular line by Descartes became the foundation of all knowledge. All the other knowledge can be imagined or in the head, but doubting your own existence is the proof itself that a person exist because the thought can only come to your mind if that thing actually does exist.
Descartes started his journey by proving that the foundation of science rested on the mind and not the senses, so he began by doubting the beliefs that stated that the foundations existed in the senses. His aim for the doubt was not to show that things were impossible to exist, but to show that the mind is open to doubt. He uses three arguments, which are evil demon argument, deceiving God argument and the dream argument and the main idea of all these arguments was that the objects perceived by humans are created in our mind because sense does not help us to get in contact with these objects.
There are two doubts related to dream. One of the dream doubt states that I am currently awake which is called the ‘now dreaming doubt,’ while the other doubt states the judgment that I am normally awake which is called the ‘always dreaming doubt.’ Both the doubts have some appeal and explain that the dreams that we come across while asleep are related and very similar to the ones we go through while being awake which is called the similarity thesis. A stronger similarity thesis might formulate that the dreams and the waking part are not different while a weak similarity thesis might state that the dreams might seem to be real when we are having them but when we wake up, they are just a figment of our imagination or dream.
The dream argument by Descartes includes the factors, which are that a person always has the perceptions similar to the ones that he senses during his dream no signs cam exist that state that the experience of dream is different from the experience of waking. Descartes also say that there is a possibility that he might be dreaming currently and his perceptions are not true. Descartes was of the position that the mind has flaws and the program of First Meditation is universal as well as hyperbolic.
Descartes put forward the hypothesis that there exists an evil demon, which is another face of the human that is deceitful, powerful, and clever and has put its entire efforts into misleading the person itself. That evil demon is the representation of the external world that exists in the minds and that same evil demon presents that the body is an illusion and the sensations that the humans feel are all illusionary and above all that Descartes does not exist. Many of the scholars consider the evil demon as omnipotent, which is why they also think that it is able to change the fundamentals of logic and mathematics.
Descartes when started thinking about this hypothesis, he stated that he noticed that he had accepted many false things in his childhood. This falsehood, he stated, was the source of overturning his beliefs and falsified everything that he knew or he thought he knew. Descartes also says that it is not important to investigate every false statement and specifically at that time when you do not have a certain knowledge about things.
After all these statements, Descartes also objects that it is reasonable to pose a doubt around the senses which inform the person about certain things which they perceive only faintly and weakly like the perception of the body which is perceived by the senses. He states that how can he possibly think that his body does not exist unless he thinks he is like the other mad people whose brains are strongly impaired and they consider themselves as kings when they are living a low life. They think they are wearing a royal color when in reality, they are naked and they have a complete empty head from which they think of such illusions.
I think, therefore I am is the statement that Descartes finally presented and provided arguments of dream and evil demon which possesses the person to doubt his own existence when in reality his thinking is the major proof that he exists.