HUMA 1160 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Cogito Ergo Sum, Cartesian Doubt
20 Nov 2017
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1a) why is the denial of the cogito ergo sum not logically self-contradictory: pierre gassendi raises the question to descartes that clarity and distinctness seem to be a subjective criterion of truth as they are different for everyone. Descartes has already explained all this in his meditation 1 with hyperbolic doubt: the cogito ergo sum is descartes first, first truth, cogito ergo sum is latin for i think therefore i am. If a contradiction is not true, then denying the contradiction must be true denial is contradictory: for example, the statement all bachelors are unmarried males, by denying the statement you arrive at, some bachelors are not unmarried males. When rewritten using unmarried males as bachelors as they are synonyms you arrive at some bachelors are not bachelors which is a contradiction: descartes says that the denial of the cogito ergo sum is a contradiction, a. j. Ayer does not see the contradiction in i think therefore i exist: a. j.
