Name: Mark Theo P. Binghay Instructor: Fr. Eric G.

Cantones
Course & Year: AB-PHILO 2
Course Title: Modern Philosophy

Rene Descartes “Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think therefore, I am).

I think therefore I am is perhaps the most famous phrase of all philosophy and its often called in
Latin Cogito Ergo Sum. Based on what I understand of Rene Descartes of his famous saying the Cogito
Ergo Sum, it started of seeking the truth of his existence. By that, he come up of his method which is
methodic doubt. Accordingly, methodic doubt is a systematically doubting everything that is possible to
doubt in order to find absolute certain truth. Yes, Rene Descartes wanted to find an absolute undoubtable
truth in order to build a system of knowledge on a solid foundation. Through methodic doubt, Descartes
determined that almost everything could be doubted.
Although unlikely it’s at least possible that we’re in some sort of cosmic dream or perhaps we’re
being deceived by a powerful demon and so we can’t know with absolute certainty that the world around
us is actually there. This is where I think therefore I am coming in to save the day. After doubting
everything in the external world Descartes turns to attempting to doubt his internal world that of his own
mind. Descartes found that although he could doubt many things about himself, one thing that he could
not doubt is that he exists. The argument goes as follows, if I attempt to doubt my own existence, then I
am thinking, thinking thing exist. Therefore, I exist, at the very least as a thinking thing. In other words,
as I doubt so I think therefore I am.
According to Descartes, even though you could doubt many aspects of yourself, you can’t doubt that
you exist entirely. You can perhaps doubt many aspects of yourself such as are you are a good person.
Meaning to say if I doubt all these things about myself one thing I cannot doubt is according to Rene
Descartes is that I am a thinking thing that I exist in some way. As Descartes says that “now that I have
convinced myself that there is nothing the world – no sky, not earth, no minds, no bodies – does it follow
that I don’t exist either? No it does not follow; for if I convinced myself of something then I certainty
existed.” At last I have discovered it – thought this is the one thing that can’t be separated from me. I am,
I exist – that is certain.
Say for example every time I attempt to doubt my own existence as a thinking thing, I thereby affirm
it by thinking. Rational self- awareness then is that undoubtable absolute certainty that Descartes was
looking for as a foundation to all of knowledge. He says that only thing that I can know for sure, the only
thing I can trust is that I actually thinking so rather believing in tradition Descartes believe that we have
all of our ideas in individual experience and reason. Most importantly reason. So, Descartes desire to
obtain the objective truth and Descartes always develop scientific in philosophy. In conclusion, if I can be
sure that I think we can be equally sure that we exist while we are thinking. For indeed, we can be sure
that we are thinking, there has to be something that does the thinking. Therefore, if I’m thinking, then I
exist. It is indeed, a long road for Descartes to restore our certainty out common-sense beliefs.

Compare and contrast the ideas of Spinoza and Leibniz on existence. Is there any difference
between their ideas of order and harmony? What is their idea about Man? How would you apply
their claims on our Environmental concerns?
 The Ideas of Spinoza on existence is he views the unity of Nature and God as the only existent
uncaused substance and the necessary and efficient cause of all other things. Since God is the same thing
as Nature, he concludes that mind and the body are two aspects of the same thing: the connection among
ideas map exactly to the connection among physical entities. Also, He believed that philosophy must
formulate ideas about that God first. Since God first, he believed that God is a Substance that we are only
attributes of substance. That the relation between God and humans but a basic unity between them. He
says, is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without God.
Spinoza believe that we are modes of Gods attributes. That these modes represent “everything which
follows from the necessity of the nature of God. And we are determined to exist and behave according to
God’s substance, of whose attributes humanity is a mode. In other words, everything that exists is either a
substance or a mode A substance needs nothing else in order to exist or be conceived.
As he said as the world consist of the modes of God’s attributes, everything in the worlds acts in
accordance with the necessity – that is, everything is determined. Spinoza writes, “Substance cannot be
produced by anything external, it must therefore, be its own cause — that is, its essence necessarily
involves existence, or existence belongs to its nature. Also, we must obtain the highest form of knowledge
which is intuition. There are a lot of knowledge namely imagination, reason and last is intuition which is
the highest for of knowledge. That as human beings we should obtain highest form of knowledge so that
we will become more and more conscious of God and hence more perfect and blessed, for through this
vision we grasp the whole system of nature and see our place in it, giving us as intellectual fascination
with the full order of Nature of God. If we obtain the highest form of knowledge, we as human should
strive towards God, because all people possess as a part of their nature the drive to continue or persist in
their own being. In other words for Spinoza we should improve our knowledge by moving from the level
of confused and inadequate ideas up to the third level of intuition, where we have clear and distinct ideas
perfect and eternal arrangement of all things in God. In other words, Spinoza says that by maintaining that
God and Nature are one, that indeed everything is one that we can obtain the order and harmony of each
one of us by striving towards and God.
On the other hand, the approach of Leibniz is for him he wanted to separate God, human, and nature
because the conception of substance was inadequate and it was blurred. Also, Leibniz disagree that
Spinoza considered extension to be an irreducible material attribute of God or Nature. Because for
Leibniz he said “simple substances, since there are compound substances, for the compound is only a
collection or aggregatum of simple substances. That we are made of monads. Because Leibniz said
“simple substances, since there are compound substances, for the compound is only a collection or
aggregatum of simple substances. For Leibniz the idea man is that whether animal or human being has a
central monad, which constitutes its soul, as well as subordinate monads that are everywhere in its body.
By that he come up the preestablished harmony. Because for him there is called windowless monad, it is
very unique that even though each monad is a separate world, but all the activities of each monad occur in
harmony with the activities of the others. Meaning to say that this This harmony, he believed, pointed to
the existence of God with “surprising clearness, because a harmony of many windowless substances can
only come from a common cause.
In other words, both and Spinoza and Leibniz focus God first. Even though they have different
definition about God but they have the same point which is to strive towards God. If we apply this to our
Environmental concerns of their philosophical claims, we are attributes of God meaning we should strive
towards God by more conscious to our doings. Like taking care of our environment, we should not be
separate to our environment. Also, in the view of Leibniz we should have our own limits of what we have
doing because so that we can obtain peace and harmony to our world. Because we cannot deny in our
world there is evil, that is why we should be established limitations to each one of us. The ideas of
Spinoza and Leibniz are very helpful to our daily life because it help us to become more aware to
ourselves, be conscious and to strive towards God by getting the highest form of knowledge.