Lecture
The principle of Cartesian philosophy is often reduced to the well-known expression: "Cogito, ergo sum" (in Latin, meaning "I think, therefore I am"). This principle is a fundamental element of the philosophy of René Descartes, the French philosopher and mathematician, and it serves as the starting point for his methodology and philosophical reflections.
The basic principle of Cartesian philosophy can be expressed by the formula “Cogito ergo sum” — I think, therefore I am, a phrase which he made the foundation of the human capacity in general to have ideas or concepts about things.
Here is a more detailed explanation of this principle and its significance:
Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am): Descartes held that every doubt, including doubt about the existence of oneself, is inescapable. However, he concluded that, since he doubts, he cannot doubt the very act of doubting. This act of doubting implies active thinking, and, consequently, the existence of the thinking subject (himself). Thus he concluded that even when everything else is subjected to doubt, the doubt itself confirms the existence of the individual mind.
The separation of body and mind: Descartes developed the concept of dualism, according to which mind and body are two separate and independent substances. The mind is a substance capable of thinking, while the body is a material substance. This separation of mind and body had a profound influence on philosophy and scientific theories, since Descartes maintained that the mind can control the body and the physical world.
The method of doubt: The principle "Cogito, ergo sum" serves as the starting point for Descartes’ method of doubt. He proposed doubting everything that can be doubted and accepting only those truths that are absolutely certain and clear. This method of doubt became a fundamental part of Descartes’ philosophy and an important element of the scientific method.
Philosophical consequences: The principle of Cartesian philosophy has far-reaching consequences for philosophy, science, and consciousness. His philosophy influenced the development of rationalism and empiricism, and also had an impact on many fields of knowledge, including mathematics, physics, and psychology.
Descartes, so to speak, closed the human world, philosophy, and science in upon himself.
He laid the foundation for a view of the human being through oneself, in accordance with
one’s own outlook, worldview, and attitudes. The philosopher made it clear
that there exist as many worlds as there are people. The diversity and
richness of the world depends on you. That is not quite exact. It would be more accurate to say
that you are this world.
The principle of the first “K” — the principle of Descartes — is formulated as
follows: in the world there occurs and takes place a certain simplest and
immediately evident being, “I am.” It subjects everything else to
doubt. What does this mean: to doubt everything — extreme solipsism?
No. This principle reveals a certain dependence of everything
happening in the world on the person’s own actions, on his activity.
The world has been created, and it is now up to you: only by accepting this principle
can the human “I” utter “I think, I exist, I am able.” And this is the
condition both of my activity and of my responsibility. Any
possibility can be realized only on condition of my own
labor and spiritual effort toward my own liberation and development. Here is what Mamardashvili wrote in another text concerning the well-known
metaphor of Descartes, “Cogito ergo sum.” We find two things. “First,
the philosophical understanding of the circumstance that there is a certain
subject of moral acts, a subject of culture, who performs
something called ‘moral.’ In the sense that this is not a natural
given — not the action of instinct, not the action of desire — but something that
is amenable to judgment in terms of ‘moral — immoral.’ Second,
the philosopher notes, let us grasp the simple thought that parents do not give birth to that ‘I’
which possesses innate ideas. Thus, according to Descartes, my ‘I’ is not from my
parents.
The first consequence of Descartes’ principle. In order to be, one must
surpass oneself. To think (to feel, to act, and so on) is exceedingly
difficult; a thought is difficult to hold onto. For a thought is a movement, and there is no
guarantee that one thought will be followed by another. In order to be
oneself, in order for tomorrow to come, where your being is, one must at
every moment surpass oneself.
The second consequence of Descartes’ principle. In order to be, one must have
the capacity to name. In order to hold onto a thought, one needs “muscles
of thought,” built up on the basis of certain primary acts. In other words,
paths of a connected space for thinking must be laid down,
paths which are paths of openness, discussion, mutual tolerance, and formal
lawful order. Such lawful order creates space and time for
the freedom of interpretation, one’s own testing, one’s own
naming. This is the very law of the world being named by one’s own name,
the appropriation of the world. The law of naming as a condition for entering the world,
for the union of my I and the not-yet-I, for the creation of an I-in-the-world.
It is important to note that Cartesian philosophy is not limited to a single principle, but "Cogito, ergo sum" is one of its fundamental elements and a key idea that formulated the foundations of his philosophical method and his views on the nature of the human mind.
Comments