PHIL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Res Extensa, Adventitiousness
10 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
A thinking thing is a thing which is being deceived, which doubts, imagines, feels, hesitates, etc. Yes, there are extended things (bodies, res extensa) Descartes only hints here what will later become known as the infamous dualism. According to cartesian dualism there are two substances, body and mind, which are not only distinct but also fully independent substances of each other. Descartes will provide proof for this view later in the meditations. Here he only notes that i, the thinking thing, am aware of my body. Now that he has established what the most certain knowledge is, des can start building his positive account of knowledge. The first thing he needs to establish is an account of what we know (positively) It seems that we know better (more clearly and distinctly) are physical things (through our senses) and not our own minds. However, this is wrong, as we actually know best our minds.
