Philosophical Essay

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Question 1: What kind of reasoning Descartes use to support the Cogito in the first meditation?

Answer: Descartes’s project appears to be more consistent with the universal thinking. It appears that he is projecting the Meta shape of the limits of our imaginations. For him everything that exist in the universe has any connection with the human interpretations of the thoughts. It has challenged the Aristotle’ interpretation of the senses. Since Aristotle has based the ideas on human senses, creates a relation between the senses and the universe. For example, in Aristotle’s view the imagination is attached to thinking and universe is attached to its seeing. Unless one cannot think, he or she cannot imagine. Similarly if one cannot see, he or she cannot guess the vastness of the universe. The reasoning Descartes use to support the Cogito in first meditation is difficult to answer. As the classic formation of this is “I think, therefore I am” is easy to interpret in a lay man thought. But it has many interpretations. For example if one thinks, according to Descartes, he has all in his thoughts ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"t8PrOx1W","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Descartes)","plainCitation":"(Descartes)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":211,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/SFMLFJZW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/SFMLFJZW"],"itemData":{"id":211,"type":"book","title":"René Descartes: Meditations on first philosophy: With selections from the objections and replies","publisher":"Cambridge University Press","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"René Descartes","author":[{"family":"Descartes","given":"René"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Descartes). It is more likely that he is thinking in the every possible manner in the first meditation. The meditator calls the cogito a very clear and a very different perception. Such perceptions are created as a result of the imaginations. Since imagination is very large and there are many possibilities that one’s interpretation might not get in connection to other. This is how also the things get in order, For Descartes this is what is different in our imaginations. Descartes imaginations are opened to wide interpretations. Things for him are wide and invites much different contours to understand. But if we think the God exist, we are now at the much different place to everyone. For example, Descartes claim that we find a reason to associate our thinking too. In this case cogito is not assured unless in some late meditations.

Question 2: What point Descartes tries to show by using the wax argument and other argument which supports his point?

Answer: By using the Wax argument, Descartes has superseded the mind, compared to the body. For him, mind has been the driver of the imaginations. It creates thoughts, it adds images, it colors them, and it add life to them. That is how the mind has a primary role over the body. For Descartes, the body has a secondary importance. It is sub ordinate to the imaginations created by mind. If someone want to observe, he can observe the body, the existence and not the inner thing. These hidden feelings are everything. They make the person drives and make him also believe on the thinks that do not exists in the real world. Descartes substantiates his argument by pointing toward many such phenomena where a human being is attracted toward a thing of less important. For him every act reinforces and strengthens the cogito. But in the process of strengthening of Cogito, he mentions that it does not in any way mean that Descartes is moving away from hos attractions for the mind. He has put the emphasis on mind on every way, for him the mind is the center of all the phenomena taking place in the universe. He believes that if I take myself back from the love of mind, I don’t then have anything to associate my feelings and my thoughts to. Another argument he uses to associate himself more toward the mind, is his own abilities, which he thinks are what had made him. He owns every aspect of his mind to himself. He places the mind over the body for so many reasons which makes him distinguished from many others around him. He also mentions that if the body has any attraction (which attracts the earthly beings), it is the mind which makes it attract. In short, Descartes have not much space for the body in his writings.

Work Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Descartes, René. René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies. Cambridge University Press, 2013.