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Cogito In The Second Meditation By Rene Descartes

1275 Words6 Pages

In the Second Meditation, what is the Cogito, and what does it tell me for certain about my own existence? What is strongest and what is weakest in Descartes’ account? The second meditation is based on the connection between a conscious and an existing body. Descartes has one main problem that he wishes to solve “How can he be sure that any of his beliefs are true?” In the second meditation, Descartes uses this cogito of consciousness and existence to assume that the mind is distant from a body. “I am, I exist”. This essay I will clearly discuss an outline of Descartes cogito in the second meditation and how it deals with the subject of existence and also Descartes’s strongest and weakest arguments in this case. “The Meditation of yesterday filled my mind with so many doubts that it is no longer in my power to …show more content…

The next step that Descartes uses in the second meditation is the existence of this Godly figure. He questions his own beliefs with that of the God, and argues that a mind should be capable of thinking for them to be of existence,
“Is there not some God, or some other being by whatever name we call it, which puts these reflections into my mind? That is not necessary, for is it not possible that I am capable of producing them myself?”
He then puts forward that for one to be deceived by this “evil demon” as he describes it, they have to exist to be deceived. Therefore Descartes states that “I am, I exist”, is true if he can clearly say it himself in the first person. This shows that for a body to think they must exist; otherwise there will be no thinking to

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