ACTIONS CONTROLLED BY TRADITIONS & LAWS = NO FREEDOM!

5. ACTIONS CONTROLLED BY TRADITIONS & LAWS = NO FREEDOM!

7. CRITIQUE OF CERTAINTY • Basis of Certainty = • skepticism • Pushing our doubt to the extremes, to the point of absurdity? • This will give us indubitable truth • REJECT EVERYTHING: • he’d been taught (traditions) • Foundation of all knowledge accessible to us: • a certainty that is secure against all modes of doubt

8. DOUBTING • CAN YOU DOUBT THAT YOU ARE BOTH THINKING AND NOT THINKING? • Doubting is a sort of thinking, one cannot doubt that he is thinking and not be thinking, and in the act of thinking one must be aware that which one thinks exists.

9. I THINK, THEREFORE I AM • even if all grounds for doubt are justified, one thing remains certain: • As long as I think, even if I am mistaken in supposing my thought be compelling, I am certain that I myself exist (cogito ergo sum --- I think, therefore I am) of this certainty I can no longer doubt.

10. AM I NOT JUST BEING DECEIVED BY AN EVIL GENIUS? IF THERE IS A GOOD GOD, HOW CAN I BE SURE THE HE IS NOT DECEIVING ME?

11. DEMON OF DECEPTION & GOD • Cogito ergo sum = clear and distinct if: • I was not created by a demon of deception • Method of deduction: • every principle must be derived or deduced from prior principles that have already been established on the basis of other principles, or premises. • ALL MEN ARE MORTAL • RENE IS A MAN. • THEREFORE, RENE IS MORTAL • If an evil spirit, who was my creator, deceived me in everything else… • he could not deceive me in regard to the fact that I, even while allowing myself to be deceived, nevertheless know that I am.

12. I find within myself the idea of an infinite and perfect being: • that is, the idea of God. • I created a CLEAR and distinct consciousness of my existence = • form of perfection in itself + idea of infinity eventhough I am finite

13. I AM NOT DECEIVED! • I cannot be fooled about the fact of my own existence. • If somebody fools me: • I must nonetheless exist in order to be fooled. • If I doubt my own experience, I must nevertheless: • exist in order to doubt.

14. SCHOLASTICISM • a lot of people misinform us, hence he insists on suspending his trust in the authority of others • Everything that I have hitherto accepted has been learned from the senses • Radical doubt: had deprived Descartes of all sensory information • for it is possible to doubt that you have a body, but it is impossible to doubt that you have a mind; • therefore your self, and your mind must be identical