What is ‘The Self’?: The Thinking Thing (Descartes)

'The Self' video series explores the definition of 'The Self' across various philosophical, scientific and religious schools of thought.

This video explores the definition of 'The Self' according to Descartes.

Descartes had a question on his self one day. Am I the waking self? or the dreaming self? or some other self? What is the true self?

He can't rely on any evidence acquired from his senses since they sometimes misled him.

Even after dismissing his senses which mislead him, he felt that 'he still exists'. He couldn't claim an absolute certainty other than this.

With its properties that seem to escape all natural laws, Descartes believed this rather ethereal mind holds the seat of consciousness. It's where we find our sentiments, our drive, our understanding, and our passions. In short, all that we really are, or our identity, comes from the mind. As Descartes so aptly put it, 'I think, therefore I am!'

By the end, Descartes concludes that I know one thing clearly and distinctly, namely, that I exist because I think: I think, therefore I exist. So, Descartes has established that he is a thing that thinks.

“precisely nothing but a thinking thing; that is, a mind, or intellect, or understanding, or reason” and that he is “not that concatenation of members we call the human body.

I'm the thinking thing that drives the awakening body and the dream body.

[sanjanar]

You had time to animate this but not voice it? What the hell?