Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Cogito: "I think". According to Descartes the prove that I exist, because the subject may even reach the doubts about its existence just by thinking and the subject must exist in order to think. Kant speaks of the "I think" that must accompany all my ideas/conceptions/notions/presentations, in order to make them my representations.See also thinking, existence, justification, representation._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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J. Hintikka on Cogito - Dictionary of Arguments
II 113 Cogito/Descartes/Hintikka: the cogito is not a premise whose conclusion would be the sum. Solution/Hintikka: it is an act of thinking that proves the existence of the subject itself. Analogously: a speech act also proves the existence of itself to the subject. Mark Twain says: "I exist". HintikkaVsDescartes: Problem: 1. What kind of entity is this, which should prove "res" with it? 2. To answer the question, what has been proved at all, we need to clarify the status of the entity. E.g. Italo Calvino: Charlemagne asks a knight why he has closed the visor. He answers: "Sir, I do not exist". II 114 Existence/non-existence/subsistence/Hintikka: in this example, the knight does not exist in a certain way, but in another, namely, in which he can be the hero of history. N.B.: i.e. here the speech act is not a conclusive proof of its existence ((s) within fiction). >Non-existence, >Fiction, >Proof. Cogito/Descartes/Hintikka: it would have been wrong, too, had Descartes concluded: "Cogito, ergo Descartes exists". ((a) So for the "I", which is explicit in "sum", insert the name). Analog: e.g. if someone tells me in the street: "Mark Twain exists" that would be just as little evidence for the existence of Mark Twain. It would have to be him who performs the speech act. Cogito/knowledge/Hintikka: problem: Descartes must also know additionally that the questionable thinker is this entity, or that type of entity. Existence/identity/entity/identification/Quine/Hintikka: Quine: "No entity without identity": that is, Descartes needs to know something about himself to be able to say about himself that he exists. Solution/Hintikka: we must distinguish two types of cross-world identification (cross-identification): a) perspective (subject-centric) identification: this is not subjective, even if it is relative to a person II 115 (It only uses one coordinate system defined by reference to the user. It itself depends on objective general principles.) b) public (object-centered) identification. >Cross-world-identifiacation, >Identification. _____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Hintikka I Jaakko Hintikka Merrill B. Hintikka Investigating Wittgenstein German Edition: Untersuchungen zu Wittgenstein Frankfurt 1996 Hintikka II Jaakko Hintikka Merrill B. Hintikka The Logic of Epistemology and the Epistemology of Logic Dordrecht 1989 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-16