Routledge History of Philosophy Volume IV

DESCARTES: METAPHYSICS AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 211
from Plato down to Descartes (and beyond). For further discussion of the label
‘rationalist’, see J.Cottingham, The Rationalists [6.12], ch. 1.
29 Compare, for example, Francisco Sanches, Quod Nihil Scitur (1581), ed. and trans.
E.Limbrick and D.F.S.Thomson (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988).
See also R.Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Descartes [6.23].
30 AT VII 18; CSM II 12. Elsewhere Descartes discusses such standard examples as
that of the straight stick which looks bent in water: AT VII 438; CSM II 295.
31 AT VII 20; CSM II 14. The dreaming argument in fact has a number of complex
twists and turns, but the two main phases, particular and general, are as indicated.
The argument appears in much more compressed form in Descartes’s summary of
his metaphysical views in Part Four of the Discourse: considérant que toutes les
mêmes pensées que nous avons étant éveillés nous peuvent aussi venir quand nous
dormons, sans qu’il y en ait aucune pour lorsqui soit vraie, je me résolus de feindre
que toutes les choses qui m’étaient jamais entrées en l’esprit n’étaient non plus vraies
que les illusions de mes songes.
32 ibid.
33 cf. AT VIIIB 175; CSMK 223.
34 For more on this argument, see R.Stoothoff, ‘Descartes’ dilemmatic argument’ [6.
52].
35 AT VI 32; CSM I 127.
36 Haud dubio igitur sum, si me fallit; & fallat quantum potest, nunquam tamen
efficiet, ut nihil sim quamdiu me aliquid esse cogitabo. Adeo ut…denique
statuendum sit hoc pronuntiatum, Ego sum, ego existo quoties a me profertur, vel
mente concipitur, necessario esse verum (AT VII 25; CSM II 17).
37 The phrasing here is from the Discourse, Part Four (AT VI 32; CSM I 127). The
notion of the Archimedean point appears in the Second Meditation: ‘Archimedes
used to demand just one firm and immovable point in order to shift the entire earth;
so I too can hope for great things if I manage to find just one thing, however slight,
that is certain and unshakeable’ (AT VII 24; CSM II 16). The actual phrase cogito
ergo sum appears in the Principles of Philosophy, Part I, article 7; its French
equivalent, je pense, donc je suis, in the Discourse, op. cit.
38 AT VII 140; CSM II 100. For discussion of the cogito argument, see A. Kenny,
Descartes [6.20], ch. 3; B.Williams, Descartes [6.28], ch. 3; M.Wilson, Descartes
[6.29], ch. 2.
39 Compare Descartes’s comment in the Preface to the Meditations: ‘I would not urge
anyone to read this book except those who are able and willing to meditate
seriously with me’ (AT VII 9; CSM II 8). For the importance of the meditator’s
activity, see Wilson, op. cit., and compare J.Hintikka, ‘Cogito ergo sum: Inference
or Performance?’ [6.46], reprinted in W.Doney, Descartes [6.33].
40 For more on this, see J.Cottingham, Descartes [6.11], 38ff.
41 cf. Sixth Objections: AT VII 413; CSM II 278.
42 See Principles of Philosophy, Part I, art. 10 (AT VIIIA 8; CSM I 196).
43 See L.Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. G.E.M.Anscombe
(Oxford, Blackwell, 1953), I, p. 243.
44 AT VII 21; CSM II 14.
45 In prima [Meditatione] causae exponuntur propter quas de rebus omnibus,
prasertim materialibus, possumus dubitare (AT VII 13; CSM II 9).