How If At All Does The Cogito

How, If At All, Does The Cogito Help To Ground Our Knowledge Securely. Essay, Research Paper

The Cogito is the name given to the famous statement Descartes

considers of which he is sure of its certainty: cogito, ergo sum, or .I

think, therefore I am.. In the Meditations, Descartes actually uses .I

think, I am., but this is practically indistinguishable from the former, which

appears in Descartes. other main works. Descartes considers that the Cogito to

be indubitable, and that he is able to use it to ground his knowledge securely.

The Cogito, however, can be said not to be as wide or as useful as Descartes

considers it to be. Its apparent indubitably may be said to be one way of

securing some knowledge, but it is likely to be the case that the only

knowledge which is actually secured is that contained within the Cogito itself. As the Cogito is such a simple proposition to make, Descartes

himself commented that anybody could have written it. Its simplicity flows from

its clear self-evidence: when one reflects on the proposition, one is thinking,

and thus one can neither doubt that one is not thinking nor not existing (at

least as long as the proposition is being considered). For this reason, it can

be said to be very effective at securing knowledge of oneself: even if a

sceptic were to claim that the malicious demon could influence the mind as

well, Descartes could reply that even if he were to doubt that he exists, then

he will still be existing, because the act of thinking requires existence.

Moreover, as Descartes points out when he begins to contemplate the evil demon

hypothesis, for the deceiver to be effective, there would have to be someone to

deceive. The cogito can therefore withstand such criticisms: as a result, the

knowledge that his mental (i.e., his non-corporeal self) is secure. There has been much debate as to the way Descartes formulates

the cogito, and whether it is an inference or a proposition. Descartes himself

would say that that cogito is not reached by means of a syllogism. Such a

syllogism would take the form of: 1)

Everything that thinks exists. 2)

I think Thus 3) I am. Descartes is of the opinion that that the self-evidence of sum

is perceived, rather than be deduced from cogito. This seems to suggest that

the cogito is an unnecessary part of the proposition. Rather than the

realisation of thinking causing one to realise that one.s existence is not in

doubt, Descartes seems to be suggesting that the mind is automatically aware of

its own existence that it immediately grasps the truth of the entire statement.

This, though, makes the cogito redundant. The mind is just as able to grasp the

truth of .I exist. without needing to consider whether it is thinking or not.

.I exist. is a self-verifying sentence: to deny it would be as absurd as to say

.I am currently absent.. Hintikka, though, suggests that these two words alone

do not necessarily make it true (an amusing example is offered of weighing

machines saying .I speak your weight. . it is not inferred from this that the

weighing machine is a conscious being), but that the cogito has a

.performatory. role in allowing the conclusion, .I am ., to be true for the

particular thinker. This makes the indubitable nature of the cogito perceived

not through the actual thinking, but because it is actively thought of... Williams suggested that Hintikka.s

suggestion of. .performatory. role for

the cogito did not involve making the entire proposition true, but offering a

reason why .I exist. cannot be doubted. In either interpretation, our knowledge

of ourselves can be suggested to be secured through the cogito. An important reason why the cogito cannot be considered a

syllogism is the common suggestion that, under the logical form set out above,

one could replace .I think. with .I walk.. This is pointed in the Objections,

although the response Descartes gives points out why .I think. is the preferred

term. Descartes, at this stage in the Meditations, is unable to be

certain that he has a physical body: it is still open to doubt. Descartes,

though, suggests that one would have to say, .I seem to be walking,. in order

for the proposition to be as certain as the earlier form. The use of the verb

.seem., though, implies thought, thus this formation would be adding nothing

new to the original form of the cogito. Again, though, one can only be sure of

the fact that one is thinking and existing . nothing more can be drawn from it.

Descartes is implying that the conclusion is intuitively known

from the premise, thus there is just one mental act which comprehends it all.

However, to say that one intuits one.s knowledge of one.s mental self, and then

infers from this that one exists, whilst denying that one flows from the other

(they are all understood immediately) seem to be contradictory. To say that by

thinking, one automatically r

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