On Descartes' First and Third Meditations

1. Existence of Self
   
   1. Define Rationalism
      
      1. Rationalism is the use of reason to ascertain knowledge.
      
      
   
   
   2. Define Empiricism
      
      1. Empiricism is the use of senses and measurement to ascertain knowledge.
      
      
   
   
   3. Descartes' view of the self
      
      1. Descartes believed that thinking logically necessitates a thing which is doing the thinking. “Cogito ergo sum”, is the crux of his argument regarding the existence of self which is a latin phrase roughly equivalent to: “I think therefore I am.”
         
         1. Arguments: To be able to consider my non-existence, I must necessarily exist. To be deceived, I must exist. Thought and existence are dependent provident of eachother. He then claims “I am the thing that is thinking.” This is intended to prove existence of self.
         
         
      
      
   
   
   4. Hume's arguments
      
      1. Hume differentiated between an idea and an impression. An impression is an inexact copy of an object stimulating the senses. An idea as related by Hume means an arbitrary unit of thought. An impression is formed by abstracting ideas from a stimulus (what he refered to as esse.) This abstraction in other words is the imperfect copying in action. He tries turning the cogito on it's head, so to speak, by asserting that all experience lies within the mind rather than a substratum. Substratum are the words represented by an idea (or, alternatively: representing an idea). Hume refers to “frames”, or specific points of time. Each passing moment is one of these frames and each frame is at least a little different from all the others in a person's life.
      
      
   
   
   5. Kant's critique of Hume
      
      1. Transcendental Argument:
         
         1. The transcendental argument of Kant and others is similar to the cogito, he states that knowledge presupposes the existence of God: If there were no God, then there could be no knowledge. There is knowledge. Therefore God exists. There is very little difference in the essences of the transcendental argument and the cogito. In fact, the transcendental argument strengthens the cogito.
            
      
      
   6. Soundness of Hume
      
      1. The use of 'framing' is a valid argument. However, I view impressions as a subset of ideas. A refutation of a subset does not refute the whole set. I agree with Descartes that all ideas are affected by judgement. I also agree with Hume that that an idea has a name does not give it a factual basis.
      
      
      2. He does not consider time as a continuum. This is evident in quantum theory, a model of physics. Specifically, the Planck constant which proves mathematically there exists a size so small that it is physically equivalent to zero size. And partly derived from this is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which proves mathematically that objects at such a small magnitude can have an undefined state where it is simultaneously in multiple states such as radioactivity. I think that Hume would reject my argument because he stated that numbers are to him an invalid proof of existence.
      
      
   
   



2. Does God exist?
   
   1. Descartes' Ontological Argument
      
      1. What I perceive clearly and distinctly must be true.
      
      
      2. What I experience through senses are ideas of material objects themselves.
      
      
      3. Judgement is driven by impulse and impulse is frequently inaccurate, so judgement is an imperfect faculty of the mind.
      
      
      4. I am not perfect.
      
      
      5. What I am calling God is the perfect cause of all things.
         
         1. The more I give my attention to a thing, the less it seems likely to be internal.
         
         
         2. An effect cannot be more perfect than it's cause.
            
            1. Perfection is a positive quality to its highest degree.
            
            
         
         
         3. That I make false judgements proves there is something more true than my idea that is the cause of my idea. This I call substance.
         
         
         4. There are two types of things that exist.
            
            1. Things that think: minds.
            
            
            2. Things that have substance: bodies.
            
            
         5. If I were the cause of myself I would be perfect.
         
         
         6. If I were God I would know myself to be God.
         
         
         7. The fact that I doubt myself is an imperfection.
         
         
         8. I must have been caused by some thing more perfect than myself.
         
         
         9. The thing that is the cause of all is all-perfect.
         
         
         10. God is a thing that exists in substance.