Due Apr 3
Cogito, Ergo Sum
Reading: Descartes, selections from the Discourse on Method (Blackboard).
Writing: Respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, posting as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:
- Comment on the way that Descartes presents himself to the reader, quoting a relevant passage. On what ground does he recommend his experience as worthy of our interest?
- In Part 2, Descartes introduces an architectural metaphor—one to which he recurs in Part 3. Quote a relevant line and then riff a bit on what this metaphor suggests as to the dimensions and implications of his intellectual project.
- In Part 4, we encounter the famous line “I think, therefore I am.” Except our translator has rendered it as “I am thinking, therefore I exist.” What does Maclean’s translation get right about the meaning of the Latin phrase, “cogito, ergo sum”? Alternatively, what does it miss that the traditional phrasing gets right?
- Having proven his own existence, Descartes goes on to argue the certainty of God’s existence. Quote a relevant line from this section and comment on the logic of his argument.
Descartes’ Manner of Self-Presentation
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Descartes’ Housebuilding Metaphor
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A quote that’s relevant is when he states, “buildings which a single architect has planned and completed, are usually more beautiful and better designed than those that several architects have tried to patch together” (12). This suggests that one mind is better than the cobbled together efforts of many. This implicates to his intellectual project, as he intends to restructure the perspectives from the ground up, as the belief in collective effort is historically agreed upon.
Translating Cogito, Ergo Sum
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The whole meaning of the Latin phrase “cogito, ergo sum” has to do with the fact that the act of doubting your own existence, is proof that your mind and existence is real. One thing that Maclean’s translation gets right about the meaning of the Latin phrase is that this all stems from the ability to think. In Maclean’s translation, “I am thinking, therefore I exist” (Descartes 28), he puts the first part in present progressive tense which is used to indicate an action in progress. This differs from the traditional phrasing, “I think, therefore I am”, where the first part is in simple present tense which is used to refer to a general state of mind. By putting the action in present progressive tense, Maclean is correctly asserting that one’s existence can be verified only when they are thinking- the action must be ongoing due to the fact the action’s performance is the basis for one’s reality. Descartes asserted that, “…if I had merely ceased thinking, I would have no reason to believe that I existed, even if everything else I had ever imagined had been true” (Descartes 33). When the action is put in simple present tense and is referred to as a general state of mind, it leans further from the true meaning of “cogito, ergo sum” because it implies that being capable of thought verifies your existence when it is actually the act of thinking. Conversely, one thing that the traditional phrasing gets correct about the Latin phrase is what the action proves. The two translations differ in their endings: Maclean’s ends with “…therefore I exist”, while traditionally it ends with “…therefore I am”. Maclean’s translation asserts that the action proves that a person exists which implies having a tangible presence. The traditional phrasing asserts that the action proves that a person is, which represents the speaker’s existence or current state of being. The Latin phrase only proves the existence of a soul, it doesn’t prove or verify the existence of anything physical, “I thereby concluded that I was a substance whose whole essence or nature resides only in thinking, and which, in order to exist, has no need of place and is not dependent on any material thing” (Descartes 29). In this way, the two translations together capture the true essence of the Latin phrase “cogito, ergo sum”.
To me, the meaning of the phrase “Cogito, ergo sum” is that if you think, you exist. If you feel anything, if you think about things, if you acknowledge, you know you are alive and you exist. Thinking and using your brain puts you amidst a collective consciousness, and you therefore exist. Thinking and having a train of thought verifies your existence, adding merit to the fact that your life has meaning.
Arguing the Existence of God
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