Rene Descartes Meditations: Modern Western Philosophy

“I think, I am.” This is the premise that all of Rene Descartes’ beliefs and ideas are based off of. He believes these four words are the foundation for his existence and what he suggest all truth stems from. Descartes believes that the only thing he knows for certain is that he is a thing and that he thinks. He does not even accept his own body or the tangible world as he feels that these may very well be illusions. Descartes would attempt to better understand this theory by spending long hours in solitude. I will argue Rene Descartes’ attempts to isolate himself at times in order to think freely and examine his individual being proves that his beliefs directly correspond to the modern Western philosophy of this time period. The modern western
He believes that the mind is the essence of who we and cannot exist without it. In an excerpt from his meditations he says: “I find here that thought is an attribute that belongs to me; it alone cannot be separated from me. I am, I exist--that is certain; but for how long? As long as I think. …if I stopped thinking altogether, I would at the same time altogether cease being…” (Descartes). Descartes uses this as the proof that he is a thinking thing. Descartes also concludes that the mind can exist outside of the body and that a body is not a necessity to our essence, something that never had been stated by any other philosophers. Descartes’ principle that our mind is esence our existence can be seen throughout western philosophy as well. For example, western philosophy led to the growth of sciences and religions, both of which require a great deal of reason and intellect. Western philosophy requires the thinking individual to come up with their own interpretations of previously held beliefs if they disagreed with them. Unlike Descartes, however, many of these western philosophy thinkers held most of their beliefs the same and would not go as far as Descartes had in denying all but two