A Mini-Essay on Descartes
...t carry any more truth than the artifices of his dreams. Descartes then came to the realization that he, who was doing this thinking, was something. He observed that the statement, I think, therefore, I am, was so definite and so poised that even the most ornate hypotheses of the cynics were incapable of demonstrating otherwise. Thus, he established this statement, without doubt, as the first conjecture of the philosophy he was seeking. Therefore, I think, therefore, I am, was concluded to be the truth. From doubting the truth of everything else, Descartes was very clear and distinct in that he did indeed exist. Alas, had he stopped thinking, despite whether what lied in his imaginations were true, he would “have no reason to believe that [he] existed.” From this, he further concluded that he was a “substance he whole essence or nature of which is simply to think,” and that it was not necessary to depend on a material substance. Essence is viewed as what defines something or someone from the rest. It is based on Descartes’ theory, “I think, therefore, I am,” which is the only truth in the universe, according to Descartes. Thus, the essence of something or someone will only...