Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

"I think, therefore I exist" -- Rene Descartes
Philosophy, An introduction to the Art of Wondering - Sixth Edition -- pages 36/37 | 1994 | James L. Christian

Posted on 11/04/2002 7:52:21 AM PST by thinktwice

Descartes was a geometrician. He found only in mathematics and geometry the certainty that he required. Therefore, he used the methods of geometry to think about the world. Now, in geometry, one begins with a search for axioms, simple undeniable truths – for example, the axiom that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. On the foundations of such “self-evident” propositions, whole geometrical systems can be built.

Following his geometrical model, Descartes proceeds to doubt everything – de onmibus dubitandum. He will suspend belief in the knowledge he learned from childhood, all those things “which I allowed myself in youth to be persuaded without having inquired into their truth.” Doubt will be his method, a deliberate strategy for proceeding toward certainty. (Descartes is a doubter not by nature, but by necessity. What he really wants is secure understanding so he can stop doubting.)

Descartes finds that he has no trouble doubting the existence of real objects/events – our senses too easily deceive us. And we can doubt the existence of a supernatural realm of reality – figments and fantasies are too often conjured by our native imaginations. But now his geometrical model pays off: in trying to doubt everything, he discovers something that he can’t doubt. What he can’t doubt is that he is doubting. Obviously, I exist if I doubt that I exist. My doubt that I exist proves that I exist, for I have to exist to be able to doubt. Therefore I can’t doubt that I exist. Hence, there is at least one fact in the universe that is beyond doubt. “I am, I exist is necessarily true each time that I pronounce it, or that I mentally conceive it.

Descartes thus becomes the author of the most famous phrase in Western philosophy: Cognito ergo sum, or, in his original French, Je pense, donc je suis. – I think, therefore I exist. With roots in St. Augustine, this is certainly one of the catchiest ideas yet created by the human mind.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: descartes; existence; inconsequentiality; maudlinmumbling; myheadhurts; philosophy; proof; renedescartes; startthebombing; winecuresthis
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 381-400401-420421-440441-451 last
To: thinktwice
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/941004/posts?page=450#450
441 posted on 07/10/2003 9:09:34 PM PDT by unspun ("Do everything in love." - No I don't look anything like her but I do like to hear "Unspun w/ AnnaZ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 364 | View Replies]

To: unspun
Your link in post 441 leads to these words ...

Is this your point: somehow you believe this...

Genesis 1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

...is proof of the non-existence of God?

No!

What I've noted is ...

There is a contradiction in claiming that God exists in reality while claiming that God created everything -- including His own Self -- that exists in reality.

And what I've proved, thank's to that contradiction, is that the commonly identified causitive factor behind reality is beyond reality; that he, she, or it does not exist in reality; that he, she, or it transcends reality -- that God does not exist in reality.

442 posted on 10/18/2003 10:18:42 AM PDT by thinktwice (If men are to be ruled, then the enemy is reason. -- Ayn Rand)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 441 | View Replies]

To: thinktwice; betty boop; Alamo-Girl
There is a contradiction in claiming that God exists in reality while claiming that God created everything -- including His own Self -- that exists in reality.

unspun raises his head from Autumn's debris...

That would be a silly contradiction, alright. Rather, it is appropriate to say that God is the uncreated Prior to all else (other than God) that is reality. That'll be $0.10. Blessings to see in the light.

443 posted on 10/30/2003 6:22:09 AM PST by unspun ("Do everything in love." | No I don't look anything like her but I do like to hear "Unspun w/ AnnaZ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 442 | View Replies]

To: unspun
Blessings to see in the light.

Thank you, and the same to you.

There is, nowever, nothing silly in contradictions; they serve to advance truth and knowledge.

Ref ... Aristotle's Law of Non-Contradiction.

He who examines the most general features of existence, must investigate also the principles of reasoning. For he who gets the best grasp of his respective subject will be most able to discuss its basic principles. So that he who gets the best grasp of existing things qua existing must be able to discuss the basic principles of all existence; and he is the philosopher. And the most certain principle of all is that about which it is impossible to be mistaken... It is clear, then, that such a principle is the most certain of all and we can state it thus: "It is impossible for the same thing at the same time to belong and not belong to the same thing at the same time and in the same respect."
-Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1005b12-20
Formulation for the Law of Non-contradiction

444 posted on 10/30/2003 7:22:07 AM PST by thinktwice ("No concept man forms is valid unless he integrates it without contradiction ... " -- Ayn Rand)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 443 | View Replies]

To: unspun; thinktwice; betty boop
Thank you so much for the heads up, unspun! I love your answer!

Here is thinktwice's speculation from the previous post:

There is a contradiction in claiming that God exists in reality while claiming that God created everything -- including His own Self -- that exists in reality.

And what I've proved, thank's to that contradiction, is that the commonly identified causitive factor behind reality is beyond reality; that he, she, or it does not exist in reality; that he, she, or it transcends reality -- that God does not exist in reality.

One can deduce a number of interesting anomalies when the presumption is made that reality is defined by a single time dimension and three spatial dimensions. Nevertheless, as unspun observed, the God of creation is the uncreated Prior and has no such boundary limitations.

Notwithstanding unspun's argument, the cause/effect relationship thinktwice asserts goes completely out the window when we add an extra time dimension to the concept of “reality". This is because when there is more than one time dimension, our time is not a line but a plane.

Naturally, in our 4D timeline-like worldview we make limited observations, one frame at a time. But in a higher spatial dimension - and especially in higher temporal dimensions - the entire movie is one instance (or brane.)

(Notably, if the extra dimensions were only spatial it would appear like a tangled bowl of spaghetti.)

The fact that 73% of the mass of the universe is dark energy, or negative gravity causing acceleration, is in itself a good indication of another time dimension.

If you’d like to read more on this subject (all pdf):

Constraints on Extra Time Dimensions

Geometric Physics

The Curse of Dimensionality


445 posted on 10/30/2003 8:44:20 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 443 | View Replies]

To: Alamo-Girl
One can deduce a number of interesting anomalies when the presumption is made that reality is defined by a single time dimension and three spatial dimensions.

Differential Geometry is what Einstein used to mathematically (and successfully) postulate on n-dimensional space; he added time to the known XYZ world of physics, and he discovered the 4-dimensional realm associated with relativity.

the cause/effect relationship thinktwice asserts goes completely out the window when we add an extra time dimension to the concept of “reality". .

I've identified a contradiction; I've not asserted a cause/effect relationship.

Nonetheless, an argument that transforms the issue of contradiction into a four dimensional cause/effect relationship won't sell because truth in the 4 dimensional world is simply time related truth rising out of a frozen-in-time 3 dimensional world.

This is because when there is more than one time dimension, our time is not a line but a plane.

Time is commonly referred to as man's 4th dimension, but ... you've said that there is more than one time dimension? Are you thinking about adding a 5th dimension -- sideways time? Or adding a 6th dimension -- 3-D time?

446 posted on 10/30/2003 10:46:42 AM PST by thinktwice ("No concept man forms is valid unless he integrates it without contradiction ... " -- Ayn Rand)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 445 | View Replies]

To: cornelis
If it weren't for the fact that there are lots of people who demonstrably are but who nonetheless show no signs of actual thought your reversal of "I think therefore I am" to "I am therefore I think" (sum ergo cogito) might have more merit.
447 posted on 10/30/2003 10:54:48 AM PST by katana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: thinktwice
For many people herein, though, the older credo ergo sum seems more applicable...
448 posted on 10/30/2003 10:55:15 AM PST by Junior ("Your superior intellects are no match for our puny weapons!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thinktwice
Thank you so much for your reply!

You say that you've "not asserted a cause/effect relationship" --- but that is what I gathered from the statement you made, i.e. that God caused the effect and thus cannot also be in the effect:

There is a contradiction in claiming that God exists in reality while claiming that God created everything -- including His own Self -- that exists in reality.

I agreed with unspun’s reply and was only adding the technical point that when time is viewed as a plane instead of a line, as in the case where the observer is in an extra time dimension, there is no directional arrow of time where cause must precede effect.

Time is commonly referred to as man's 4th dimension, but ... you've said that there is more than one time dimension? Are you thinking about adding a 5th dimension -- sideways time? Or adding a 6th dimension -- 3-D time?

It doesn't matter whether there is one or more extra time dimensions. The effect is the same. Each time dimension is a plane, it only matters which brane coordinates are chosen for the observer.

Nonetheless, an argument that transforms the issue of contradiction into a four dimensional cause/effect relationship won't sell because truth in the 4 dimensional world is simply time related truth rising out of a frozen-in-time 3 dimensional world.

If all time dimensions are removed there is no cause/effect relationship of any kind (or any such time sequenced construct) - no fields, no wave phenomenon thus no particles, only non-actualized spatial geometry.

449 posted on 10/30/2003 12:04:55 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 446 | View Replies]

To: Alamo-Girl
Thank you for your response, but I have a question.

You wrote ... If all time dimensions are removed there is no cause/effect relationship of any kind (or any such time sequenced construct) - no fields, no wave phenomenon thus no particles, only non-actualized spatial geometry.

Can you imagine existence without time being involved?

450 posted on 10/30/2003 1:04:09 PM PST by thinktwice (It would be non-existence, and hard to write a book about, but people would read the book.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 449 | View Replies]

To: thinktwice
Thank you for your reply!

Can you imagine existence without time being involved?

Indeed, I can and do conceive of such a state, which would be roughly equivalent to the condition from which the Big Bang emerged.

451 posted on 10/30/2003 1:18:16 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 450 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 381-400401-420421-440441-451 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson