Re: Query: Boku desu sentence meaning.

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:14:25 -1000, Bart Mathias wrote:

Logically, it's "Je suis, donc je suis" with a bit of sleight-of-hand in
the first clause.


I see what you're saying, but I don't think it's fatal for the
argument. You could simply rephrase "If there's self-awareness, then
there exists a self," taking the person out altogether. In terms of
the further development of the argument, that's just as valid, isn't
it?

I see the "rephrase" as valid, in the sense of awareness that doesn't
include things like being aware of unicorns or ghosts, etc. In that
sense, one can't be aware of something that doesn't exist.

But I don't think it is a paraphrase. Descartes left out the "if," for
one thing.

Back when I was taking first-semester freshman philosophy, I had a
terrifying moment when I understood Hume's (I think, or was it
Berkeley's?) professed doubt of his own existence. It didn't last long,
and I soon decided it doesn't really matter whether I'm me or not, so to
speak, question-begging-wise. But logically does a self have to be
*my*self?

I believe that was Nietzsche's view. He felt that Descartes should have
said 'something' thinks.


--
Phil
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Query: Boku desu sentence meaning.
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