Critiscisms of the Cogito

• 3 critiscisms of the Cogito

  1. One must experience before you think - the cogito is syntetic a posteriori(Humes fork)
  2. The demon could still be making you percieve the decieving thoughts
  3. Clear and distinct cannot be selfjustifying
• Hume says that we never experience the self. Therefore we cannot know that we are.
• Decartes assumes that he has demonstrated the existence of the self.

  However this only proves the existence of a mind - not neccesarily his own
• Hume says that Decartes confuses similarity with identity


  Decartes has noticed a collection of similar thoughts but has concluded that these similar thoughts belong to the same entity - Res Cogitans.

  Decartes has confused himself, he has not proved there is a self who has these thoughts only that these thoughts exist
• Res Cogitans


  the thinking thing
• Decartes responds to Hume and say the idea of percetion must come before the idea of imperfection
• Hume argues that God is developed from the augmentation and abstraction of our experiences
• there is no way for an individual to validate his own self as you are assuming that the self exists in order to do so . Therefore, the Cogito is not an intuition but an inference as it cannot be certain.