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... What Descartes asserts is that
(i) Even (perhaps especially) if he has convinced himself that nothing he has perceived to exist before does exist, he has not convinced himself that he himself does not exist, for he cannot convince himself of anything if he does not first exist. ...
Thus Descartes concludes that so long as he is able to deduce that he is thinking he is able to intuitively tell that he exists, for the very act of thinking is sure, for it cannot be interfered with by the senses, and reliant on existence, for one can surely not think if one does not first exist. ... The objection of some is that to say ¡§I think¡¨ already presupposes existence, and therefore to add a conclusion to this is unnecessary ¡V the conclusion is implicit from the premise. Descartes himself does allude to this, saying;
¡§When we become aware that we are thinking things, this is a primary notion which is not derived by means of any syllogism¡¨
However, what Descartes created is a partial syllogism. ... Expressed in the predicate calculus, it would be written as follows;
Hx: x is thinking
Gx: x exists
Domain: Everything
a: I
Ha Ga
Expressed further as a tableau of the predicate calculus, we can see that, as the tableau does not close, it cannot be conclusively deemed to be correct;
Ga
Ha
However, if one considers a further premise which Descartes neglects to include in his cogito ¡V the premise that if something is thinking, then it exists.
Approximate Word count = 1225
Approximate Pages = 4.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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