PHILOS 25B Lecture 6: PHILOS 25B Lecture 6 (Meditation II Continued) (February 2, 2015).docx
Document Summary
Recap: descartes realizes that he can"t doubt his thinking and his existence. He acts as if i exist is his archimedean point from which he can recover all the knowledge he cast into doubt earlier. Descartes" former beliefs about what he is: descartes asks, what kind of a thing am i? . Sensitive soul (includes nutritive, appetitive, sensitive, locomotive) exists in animals. Rational soul (includes everything) exists in humans. Descartes conception of the soul: descartes saw his soul in the aristotelian way, believing it was not a substance but a kind of principle infused in the body, like the form. Doubt, descartes questions the functions of his soul. He realizes that eating, locomotion, and sensing all require a body. But he doesn"t really know if his body exists. All that is left is thinking: the question, what am i? , descartes answers with, i am a thing that thinks a mind.
