The Latin "Cogito, ergo sum" [I think, therefore I am]
The first piece of Descartes Meditation, Descartes attempts to review the beliefs he has been taught in order to establish truth in science. He forms a sceptical belief or hypotheses about everything in the physical world. As a result he suspends his judgement on his previously held beliefs. In the second Meditation, Descartes expands theory on the ?nature of human mind', Descartes questions his identity, the eternal ?I', and introduces a theory of representationalism, and lays down the thought that ?one's consciousness implies one's existence'.
Descartes, in his third part of Descartes Meditation, discusses that there are three main categories of thoughts such as
* volitions
* affections and
* judgements
and propounds that there are two main cause and effect relationships within classes of thought. He states that the two cause and effect relationship within such classes of thought include:
* whether our thoughts do not deceive us or
* whether we are deceived by our thoughts
Furthermore, Descartes, after analysis of such aforementioned classes of thought, also establishes the existence of ?I' and God.
General review The Meditations
His leading work in physics, mathematics, optics, physiology, geometry and astronomy would have been quite enough to mark out Descartes as one of the founders of the Western way of thinking. But this petit bourgeois former soldier from La Haye in central France determined to round-off his career in the sciences by presenting to the world his thoughts on how it is, and why, we construct truth.
These Meditations begin by attempting to do ...