Descartes

Descartes Since Descartes’ brain-in-a-vat analogy, people have pondered whether they really exist. Even in today’s modern times, movies like ‘The Matrix’ exemplify the modern paradigm of Descartes’ example. So can we prove we exist' In this paper, I hope to show that we can, but not the context we exist within. I will use the example of ‘The Matrix’ to not only show that a theoretical Matrix could deceive us, but also a more plausible and finite Matrix. Descartes’ ‘cognito ergo sum’ (‘I think therefore I am’) is a perfectly valid method of proving we exist. The fact that we are thinking about our existence proves we exist! Unfortunately, this is as far as Descartes and myself agree - he uses this argument to corroborate the idea that the mind can exist without the body. Yet how can a non-physical entity think' I firmly believe that the act of thinking is a physical process - sensory information (or other events) triggers neurons to fire within the brain that in turn excites various other areas and causes chemical reactions that consequentially affects what we think and feel. Therefore, an entity that does not physically exist cannot think. Dualism complicates matters by creating descartes’, exist, physical, brain, think, therefore, prove, existence, being, am, thinking, reality, matrix, since, example, body, yet, power, one’s, mental, meaning, infinite, finite, context, computing, world, within, whether, using, proves, processes, process