Beyond Descartes

This is well documented in philosophy texts, but only recently has it begun to make real sense to me.

Descartes wanted to know if anything was certain. He embarked on a process of doubt, trying to find if there was anything he could not doubt.

All sense could be hallucinations or like things in the Matrix.

One day he came to consider his own thoughts and inparticular his doubting and then he realised something. Could he doubt that he was doubting? The more he tried to doubt he was doubting the more he knew he was doubting. It was some certainty at last! He expanded this immediately realising that he could not think that he was not thinking! any thought was proof that he was thinking - even the thought that he was not thinking.

The inner world of Descartes was filled with certainty which grew and grew. Eventually he realised that even if he was hallucinating that experience of his hallucinations could not be doubted. The whole mental world was proof to Descartes that he was thinking and seeing and hearing and soon the world was back certain and secure again.

He made a well reported mistake however. Although he was now fully aware of all these undoubtable experiences, how did he know they belonged to him?

Where is the evidence that anything belongs to us?

We think many things belong to us from cars, to houses, to children, to arms, legs, organs, brain, sights, sounds and thoughts. But, where is the evidence they belong to us?

I will explore in later blogs that on many occasions in life we are able to own things, and then disown them. It is a free process, so where comes the real link that goes beyond our choice to own things?