#2
This is the Latin shorthand for Descartes’ most famous conclusion: “I think, therefore I am.”
What is the cogito?
This is why Descartes believes the idea of God cannot come from his own mind.
What is finitude?
A key factor of the human mind according to Descartes also commonly referred to as “freedom to choose.”
What is will?
In Meditation 5, Descartes uses this example of this geometric shape to illustrate that certain properties belong to a thing’s essence, independent of whether the thing actually exists in reality
What is a triangle?
The part of our being that is separate from the body.
What is the mind/soul?
Descartes concludes that he exists as this.
What is a thinking thing?
This property of God makes the idea of God clearer and more certain than other ideas.
What is perfection?
The medium term between god and nothingness.
What are humans?
Descartes says that of a physical thing, each of these parts he ascribes various magnitudes, shapes, positions and local motion, and to the motions he ascribes various durations.
What is extension?
This teaches you through feelings of pain, hunger, thirst, and so forth.
What is nature?
Descartes claims there is the body, but there is also this, which accounts for perception and the senses.
What is the soul?
Descartes says that ideas cannot contain more perfection than their causes because something cannot come from this.
What is nothing?
A term meaning “faculty of acquiring knowledge” used by Descartes throughout the meditation
What is cognoscendi?
In Meditation 5, Descartes says this kind of truth like “a triangle has three angles” is so clear and certain that even doubt can’t shake it
What are mathematical truths?
This is at fault for our external senses such as sound, smell, touch, hearing, and sight.
What is judgement?
Descartes says that this is the one thing that “cannot be stripped from me.”
What is thought (thinking)?
The mind & body are this type of substance.
What is finite?
Referred to by Descartes as “the absence of something”
What is privation?
In Meditation 5, The analogy is used to prove the existence of God
What are mountains and valleys used for?
What example does Descartes argue that the mind and body are distinct substances? He notices that sensations like pain, hunger, and thirst are felt directly and not observed.
What is a pilot in a ship?
This phrase, less common than his most famous formulation, summarizes the insight of the Second Meditation.
What is “I am, I exist, whenever I am thinking”?
Descartes claims that while he has many ideas, only one has infinite objective reality
What is the idea of God?
Descartes refers to as the cause of his errors.
What is God-Given Power?
In meditation 5, Descartes claims that you cannot have these ideas separated as a proof for God’s presence.
What is essence and existence?
The reason Descartes believes sensory experience cannot be fully false, even though it can be confused
What is the claim that “god is not a deceiver"?