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Descartes starts by doubting everything (“I will suppose then, that everything I see is spurious�) and thinks that anything which admits the slightest doubt must be false. He attempts to find something which he is unable to doubt and if he cannot he must conclude He contends that he is not able to doubt his existence. Even if there is a deceiving god who is constantly deceiving him about the world, he still must exist, as he must exist in order to be deceived. (“I am, I exist�).

He then tries to define what exactly this ‘I’ that exists is. His first answer is a ‘man’, which he defines as a ‘rational animal’. (Aristotelian answer).But this answer is far too complex for one would have to go on to define rationality and animal and these definitions would lead to other more complex ones. This is not the best way to go about answering the question.

In order to understand what ‘I’ is, he considers the things which came spontaneously into his mind when he......

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Approximate Word Count: 1012
Approximate Pages: 5 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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