Do You Exist Because You Think, or Do You Think Because You Exist, or Neither?

-          I can imagine myself as a thinking thing existing apart from the body (as shown by the different essences in the argument from essence.).

Therefore: (5) God exists. The first premise of this argument, (1), is Anselm’s conception of God. (2) is a simple logical truth; if God is the greatest conceivable being then there is no greater conceivable being, (3) follows simply from (1) and (2).

To conclude, the Cogito Ergo Sum argument is sound since both its logical form is valid and its premises are true. Descartes has shown that the mind is more reliable then the senses, the thought “I exist” does not occur through the mediation of a representation and that the activity of thought is distinct from any bodily activity. The importance of such an argument comes as Descartes will argue against solipsism and that things exist outside of us.

Since he can only be certain of the existence of himself insofar as he is a thinking thing, then he has knowledge of his existence of only a thinking thing.

This argument for God’s existence was developed by the twelfth century theologian and philosopher, Anselm. It is based on Anselm’s declaration that God is “that which nothing greater can be conceived.”

‘Cogito Ergo Sum,’ - ‘I think therefore I am ‘ one of the most famous and well known quotes or arguments in all of modern philosophy; a phrase instantly recognizable to all those studying in the field of philosophy. This phrase refers to an attempt by Descartes to prove with absolute certainty his own existence; a systematic way to philosophize. The argument, while first proposed by ancient philosophers such as Aristotle and Saint Augustine, was utilized as an argument by French philosopher Rene Descartes in his influential text “Meditations on First Philosophy“. This argument appears in the books second meditation and provides the cornerstone for Descartes argument in the following five meditations and serves as the basis for Descartes overall metaphysical thesis, without which Descartes reasoning system would collapse. Throughout this paper I will

exists and his idea of what a perfect being is, such as God, then God exists.

To exist in reality is greater than existing in the mind (idea). Therefore God, being that which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality. All his premises support his conclusion, creating a valid and sound argument proving that God must exist.

In the book Discourses on the Method and the Meditations, author Rene Descartes famously questions the existence of humanity. His most famous quotation, the one for whom he is most remembered is "I think therefore I am" (Descartes 11). According to this idea, so long as a being has the ability to think then they existed. Animals have brains and therefore they must exist. In order to truly, exist, to be a thinking entity, a person or organism must utilize the ability granted to them by their mind. This is the focus of much of this text, the nature of existence and the line between what is true and what we only imagine or perceive to be true. For the majority of the text, the philosopher asks questions in trying to formulate his own identity and indeed whether or not he existed as all. It would be assumed that the end of the book would be a conclusion of this internal dialogue where Descartes definitively states his position on human existence. However, Descartes instead devotes the end of the text to a wholly new concept: namely he applies the question of existence to a being above humanity. At the end of the text, instead of continuing on with these questions Descartes instead discusses the idea of God and whether or not He exists.

The original Proslogion simplified key ideas from Anselm’s earlier work, Monologion. In his ontological argument, Anselm states, "If God exists only in thought, God could also be thought of as existing in reality as well, which is (a far) greater (thing)." Anselm believed in the existence of God and he also believe that because God exists, he is greater than a god who doesn’t (exist).

This then leads him to question the existence of God, and then whether he himself truly exists as well. Descartes concludes his claim in stating, “So after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind,” (25). Therefore, in spite of everything he is skeptical of, Descartes manages to believe that his true existence is not something worthy of doubt.

that it is caused to exist by B, why may not B be caused to exist by

Rene Descartes is a modern French philosopher, who is famous for his line, “I think, therefore I am.” The meaning of this quote is that he must exist because he has the ability to think. In Descartes most famous work, The Meditations, he starts off by doubting everything, which is known as the Method of Doubt. He believes that our senses are always deceiving us in some way and so our senses are unreliable in proving anything. By this, he means that when we use our senses, such as our vision, to look at something, the way that the object looks from afar is different from the way it looks upfront, thus, deceiving us. However, Descartes

exists except from matter so therefore the mind and the body (brain) work together and

I believe, however, that existence is not provable through reason based on experience, but by that very experience. While many great [and amateur] philosophers argue that the life in its natural state is based on God, or science, or any of a great number of other things, I argue that life is merely based on consciousness. There is no proof of one's own existence but one's own consciousness, that very awareness of your being. Whether it is a false awareness or not is no matter. It is that