History of Western Ideas Course- Allied IV

Cartesian Philosophy
Previous Year Short Notes 2017
Courtesy- 53rd Batch, Department of English
University of Chittagong

 Cogito, ergo sum-

 Cogito, ergo sum is a philosophical statement that was made in
Latin by Rene Descartes usually translated into English as “I think,
therefore I am.” The phrase originally appeared in French as je
pense, donc je suis in his Discourse on the Method. The dictum is
also sometimes referred to as The Cogito. It is the first step to
demonstrate the attainability of certain knowledge. It is the only
statement to survive the test of Cartesian doubt. The statement is
absolutely certain, self-evident and indubitable. This is possibly the
most famous single line in all of philosophy. The cogito presents a
picture of the world and of knowledge in which the mind is
something that can know itself better than it can know anything
else. While other knowledge could be a figment of imagination,
deception or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of
doubting one’s own existence served as proof of the reality of one’s
own mind, there must be a thinking entity in this case to be a
thought. Through this maxim, Descartes was entitled to say that
“Thinking is occurring.” And thinking is out of question except
existence in accordance with Descartes. Descartes argued in the
 second of his six meditations on First Philosophy because even if
an all-powerful demon were to try to deceive him into thinking that
he exists when he does not, he would have to exist in order for the
demon to deceive him. Therefore, whenever he thinks, he exists.
The cogito proves only that whenever he is conscious of thinking,
he exists as a thinking being. Finally, it is suggested that the cogito
indeed the conclusion of a syllogism whose premises include the
propositions that he is thinking and whatever thinks must exist.
 Prepared by- Mohammad Sabetul Islam

 Methodic Doubt-
 Methodic doubt in Cartesian philosophy, a way of searching for
certainty by systematically though tentatively doubting everything.
It is also known as Cartesian skepticism, methodological
skepticism, systematic doubt or hyperbolic doubt. It is a systematic
process of being skeptical about the truth of one’s belief. In the first
half of the 17th century the French rationalist Rene Descartes used
methodic doubt to reach certain knowledge of self-existence in the
act of thinking expressed in the indubitable proposition cogito,
ergo sum. He found knowledge from tradition to be dubitable
because authorities disagree; empirical knowledge dubitable
because of illusions and mathematical knowledge dubitable
because people make errors in calculating. He proposed a way of
invoking universal skepticism through methodic doubt. First, all
statements are classified according to type and source of
knowledge that is knowledge from tradition, empirical knowledge
and mathematical knowledge. Then examples from each class are
examined. If a way can be found to doubt the truth of any
 statement, then all other statements of that type are also set aside
as dubitable. The doubt is methodic because it assures systematic
completeness but also or even that any statements in a dubitable
class are really false or that one must or can distrust them in an
ordinary sense. The method is to aside as conceivably false all
statements and types of knowledge that are not indubitably true.
The hope is that by eliminating all statements and types of
knowledge the truth of which can be doubted in any way, one will
find some indubitable certainties. Methodological skepticism is
distinguished from philosophical skepticism in that
Methodological skepticism is an approach that subjects all
knowledge claims to scrutiny with the goal of sorting out true from
false claims, whereas philosophical skepticism is an approach that
questions the possibility of certain knowledge.
 Prepared by- Mohammad Sabetul Islam

 Inspiration- Nur Islam Biplob Vai

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