Thinking of Humans Existence in Discourse on Method by Rene Descartes - Essay Example

Descartes claims his own existence from the first-person point of view and does not refer to a second or a third person's viewpoint. This means that he is allowing credibility to only his consciousness and cognitive powers, and not to that of any other objective audience. Indeed his method leaves no room for the derivation of a third-person truth, which would require the acknowledgment of premises beyond the perceiving being's conscious self.Descartes arrives at this insight into the nature of existence after undergoing the three 'waves' of doubt.

The first of these brings up the fact that knowledge-based sensory inputs have not always been shown up as reliable. The second is a doubt that all that we experience and feel, indeed, our very existence itself may be only a dream, because a lot of our thoughts that take place while dreaming are not, in fact, real, but they are very similar to our waking thoughts. The third, and the most diabolical one of them all, is that we may be the subject of deception by an evil demonic force that presents to us as irrefutable knowledge, that which is not true at all.

The conclusion of "I think, therefore I am", has been criticized on various grounds. Many have disagreed with the transition from "I am thinking" to "I exist" claiming that this requires the consideration of an extra premise "Whatever has the property of thinking, exists" and is, therefore, a syllogistic inference. But though Descartes admitted the requirement of an extra premise and refused the accusation of syllogism, it can be stated with the reason that "Whatever has the property of thinking, exists" is an axiom, requiring no demonstration.

It is therefore not part of the method of doubt.There have also been various criticisms of the need and justification of the "I" in the statement, but its entity has not been satisfactorily replaced by any other word, that fully performs all the functions required of the "I". To say "There is some thinking going on" as some like George Litchenberg have suggested, is not adequate, as long as the statement is not impregnated with meaning by a subject, "I" in this case.