To be completely honest, I am more than a little nervous to be posting my thoughts on Descartes on this blog. I’ve never blogged in my life, and starting with something I barely understood, doesn’t seem like the best place to start, in my opinion that is. Honestly, I really didn’t understand much of what was said, though my copy of the reading has more yellow on it than white.
I think my biggest issue was the fact that Descartes seemed to go from a stand-point of saying that God undoubtedly existed, to a point where he was saying God was out to deceive us and wasn’t even real. If I misinterpreted that, please let me know because I really had trouble understanding it.
There was one part that I didn’t have as much trouble understanding, it came from Point 6 in his Second Meditation. He says, “I am—I exist: this is certain; but how often? As often as I think; for perhaps it would even happen, if I should wholly cease to think, that I should at the same time altogether cease to be.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but to me this statement seems very self-explanatory. And he’s right, when we cease to think, or when our brains cease to function, we don’t really exist, we become like vegetables. Without our brains functioning, we can’t, and don’t, do anything; we are reduced to relying on machines and doctors to keep us alive.
Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong, but this is what I was able to glean from my reading, which was laborious in-and-of-itself, but enjoyable none-the-less. I hope that I make sense and that as the year continues I will be able to pull more from our readings. I can’t wait to see what this next year holds, I’m absolutely certain it’s going to be awesome!
~Meghan Johnston
P.S. Commented on Brittany's post.
DesCartes amuses me when he gets to his sixth point. He affirms that he is a body, and that he possesses all that a body can possess, but can he confirm what he possesses to be true? No, there really is no way to do that, so he just moves on.
ReplyDeleteHow do we know we exist? We think. If we were to stop thinking, if our brain were to stop working, we would stop existing. I agree with you there. I also think it's funny that at the point that we stop existing we would not know it because we would not be able to think.
One thought I'm having probably because I am a nursing major revolves around people on life support.
ReplyDeleteI've heard miraculous stories about people hearing and thinking about everything said while in a coma, but those are the people that come back to tell them...so what about the people that die after living for a long time on life support or in a coma (I don't quite know the difference yet). But when you mentioned "vegetables" it reminded me of that....we all assume that brain activity on a machine man has made corrilates to life, what if those people are thinking...what about people who have retardations that debilitate their communication...i might assume they are lacking those deep inner thoughts, but what if they are all there...what if that person is really brilliant and playing math games in their head all of which they cannot articulate in the way we "normal" people do...this just makes me wanna get to heaven and ask some good questions (:
oh yeah! and don't be afraid to blog ;) no one tears anyone up on here.
ReplyDeleteMeghan,
ReplyDeleteGreat questions. I have had some of my own questions in reading Descartes this time, and it isn't even my first time to study him. I believe you're on to something with the vegetable thing. However, it sparked in my head that he is over-thinking everything so that he can learn to think (an accurate description for both myself and Honors). It appears that there are two reasons he doubts God. One is possibly to give a foundation for the rest of thought, as he may believe that if God isn't real, nothing else could be (he's kind of cutting to the chase). The second reason may be that he would still be a "vegetable", as you described, if he were to exempt anything from thought. The minute he begins to choose what should be thought on and what should not is the minute he begins to rot from a lack of thought.
Agreeing with Rachel: this is your place of release; it's good you've let out all that confusion. Well done :P
I definitely had difficulty understanding this, but part 6 in the second meditation is my favorite part. In my opinion it is the time when DesCartes is most sure of what he is saying. Instead of going along a long rabbit trail of thoughts and questions he affirms that we are all thinking things. HOwever, it takes him a long time to get to that place. It's like he thinks just to see how big of a hole he can dig and then start to work out of it. Very close to the honors program motto!
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