Modern Man 09

Cartesian doubt Doubt in time Transmogrification Descartes writes: "Even if the entire world around me be a dream and illusion, and all my beliefs about being or the blue sky all be dreams, still can find beliefs that are not doubted."  Whether I be asleep or awake, two plus two is equal four, the triangle has three sides and the community of contradictions is impossible. Of course, if we ruthlessly continue to questioning all beliefts and ideas of ourselves, we may be able to find a way, as Descartes did, to question everything even Proven facts. He says: "Imagine for a second that you were transposed into Mephistopheles world, in which you wrongly imagine two plus two equals four, as in fact it is not true." Now, we may think that we can not find any idea that can considered infallible, but Descartes does not agree even with this.  According to the phrase that became the basis of philosophy, “I think, therefore I am," there is still hope that he is safe from deceitful devil. Because if he deceived me, then I am exist that’s why he is able to deceive me, otherwise the extinct can not be deceived because there is no extinct to be deceived. So this belief that I exist is a belief that even the most evil forces can not refute it. So Descartes shouts: “I think, therefore I am." Human beings usually doubt in everything systematically, and the only thing that human beings don’t have doubt in is doubt. After all, there is an "I" who doubts in everything, and in this don’t have any doubt. Here is where Descartes' philosophy begins, and this skeptical idea, which he claims underlies the certainties of his philosophy, is crystallized in “I think, therefore I am."  And “I doubt, therefore I am” which is known as Cogito, ergo sum. One of the popular and famous haiku had the following theme: "I dreamed that I were a butterfly on temple bell,  Then I woke up, Now, I do not know that I was a person who had dreamed about butterfly or I am a butterfly that wants to be a human being.

Cartesian doubt Doubt in time Transmogrification Descartes writes: "Even if the entire world around me be a dream and illusion, and all my beliefs about being or the blue sky all be dreams, still can find beliefs that are not doubted."  Whether I be asleep or awake, two plus two is equal four, the triangle has thre...More→