I Think Therefore I am
There are two ways you can die physically.
- A clinical death
- A biological death
The difference between these 2 deaths is that clinical death is when your heart stops. At this point, you can still be revived. A biological death, also known as brain death, is when the electrical activity in your brain ceases.
In the scenario that someone suffers from biological death, most doctors would rule that as their official time of death as opposed to a clinical death where they still have a chance at survival. This is due to the fact that brain damage from biological death is irreversible and even if their heart still continues to beat, it is hard to know if the patient is the same.
Let’s take the example of a braindead patient. These patients are usually kept alive through artificial life support. While it may seem that they are still alive as their heat is still beating, they still lack the ability to do basic functions like talk, move, and even think.
To use one’s brain and think, is the basis of who they are. While physically they can be perceived as their own person, but without their brain and ability to think, their physical body is nothing but a shell or as René Descartes puts it mere “machines made of earth”.
René Descartes is known for one of his most famous quotes, “ I think therefore I am.” He founded the basis of what we call now, Epistemology. Descartes is a known skeptic and found a process of thinking called Cartesian Skepticism.
Descartes first asked a very important question.
“How do we know our beliefs are true?”
He first thought that an evil demon is decieving him. But as a devout Christian, he could not believe that God would either decieve Humans or create an evil demon to do so. He then concluded that it was Humans were responsible for their own errors.
What I challenge about this concept, however, is that if René Descartes believed in God, wouldn’t he believe in Satan as well? It would make sense for Satan to create an evil demon to deceive him.
One of Descartes main conclusions is relevant to the discussion on biological death. He concluded that the mind is really distinct from the body. His main three arguments are:
- the mind is a substance
- It can be clearly and distinctly understood without any other substance, including bodies
- God could create a mental substance all by itself without any other created substance.
What I find interesting is how he concluded that God can create a mental substance all by itself. How would a mental substance on its own be of any significance and if Descartes believe in skepticism, would he not be skeptic of the fact that he is unable to fact check that conlcusion especially since he, himself, is weighed down by his own physical substance.
As a skeptic myself, I’ll use Decartes’ “Caresian Skepticism” to challenge his ideas.
Here is an example of a Cartesian-style skeptical argument:
A. I know that there are trees only if I know that I am not deceived that there are trees.
B. I do not know that I am not deceived that there are trees.
C. Therefore, I do not know that there are trees.
Using that style of argument, I can challenge Descartes by saying that:
A. I know there is a mental substance without a physical substance only if I know I am not decieved there is a mental substance without a physical substance.
B. I do not know that I am not decieved that there is a mental substance without physical substace.
C. Therefore, I do not know that there is a mental substance without a physical substance.
