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The Western Canon Mailing List
Moderator: Paul John Barnette Jr.
Activation Date: March 8, 1997
Current Date:  June 12, 1997
Current Membership: 64
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Some comments on Part IV of the Discourses.

Part IV is by far the most important section thus far. 
The first three parts were really a long introduction
wherein Descartes describes his method of analysis, but
in part IV he states the results of his analysis for the
first time. This section is so important that I encourage
the members of this list to reread Part IV a number of
times, and to follow what Descartes is saying here very
carefully.

(1) "But immediately I noticed that while I was endeavoring
in this way to think that everything was false, it was
necessary that I, who was thinking this, was something. And
observing that this truth 'I am thinking, therefore I exist'
was so firm and sure that all the most extravagant suppositions
of the sceptics were incapable of shaking it, I decided that
I could accept it without scruple as the first principle of
the philosophy I was seeking"

Anyone who knows anything about philosophy should be able to
recognize this passage, for it is one of the most famous passages
ever written. If one knows anything about Descartes one knows that
it is he who coined the phrase "I think, therefore I am". Descartes,
however, was not the first philosopher to have this insight. Saint
Augustine had made the same observation centuries earlier, but 
unlike Descartes, he did not make it the centerpiece of his 
philosophic system.

(2) "From this I knew I was a substance whose whole essence or
nature is solely to think, and which does not require any place,
or depend on any material thing, in order to exist. Accordingly
this 'I' - that is, the soul by which I am what I am - is entirely
distinct from the body, and indeed is easier to know than the body,
and would not fail to be whatever it is, even if the body did not
exist."

Three comments concerning this passage.

A. It is here that Descartes creates what latter came to be called
the mind/body problem. Here he states that thinking is an entirely
different type of being and is totally distinct from physical reality.
He basically divides the universe into two separate parts, the
material and the mental. By making such a sharp distinction Descartes
creates a very serious problem for himself, how to explain the apparent
interaction between the mind and the body. 

B. Many subsequent philosophers have criticized Descartes for introducing
the notion of substance into the passage above. They point out that
there is nothing in Descartes' argument thus far to support the idea
that this "thinking thing" is also a substance. They contend that he
simply assumes that is has to be. 

C. Also, many philosophers have pointed out that Descartes does not
have enough cause to use the word 'I' in regard to this 'thinking
thing'. They claim that Descartes assumes that this 'thinking thing' 
has a personal identity without proof. Personally I have always been
doubtful about this criticism. Is not this 'thinking thing' Descartes
himself? I have always thought that the fundament nature of this 
'thinking thing' was that it is also an 'I' because it is arrived at
through personal introspection. I am curious what if any ideas the
other members of the list have on this matter.

(3) "So I decided that I could take it as a general rule that the
things we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are all true;
only that there is some difficulty in recognizing which are the
things that we distinctly conceive."

Descartes asks what is it about the notion "I think, therefore I am"
that presses its truth upon the mind. For him it is because it is
a very clear and a very distinct idea, and thus he thereby discovers
his criterion of truth. The last phrase in the passage above is also
important because Descartes will be able to use it to explain why
error exists at all.

Since there is so much information in part IV, and this posting
is already getting a little long, I will continue with my comments
on part IV in a few days.

Please post any comments that you may have!!!
Is anyone else on the list reading Descartes other than myself?

Paul John Barnette Jr.


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