Sunday, September 1, 2019

Doubt and Autonomy

Descartes' method of Doubt consists in controlled doubting.  Now, as has been previously discussed, Certainty is merely Autonomy, i. e. control, abstracted from the corporeality of the subject.  Thus, Descartes' pivotal conclusion that Doubting is certain, i. e. 'I cannot doubt that I am doubting', is uninformative--it means merely that when one is employing a method, one is in control of what is doing, and likewise for when one is 'thinking'. Now, his 'I Think' is abstracted from an Object, i. e. from 'I think that X', or, in other words, from 'I believe that X'.  Furthermore, Pragmatists have defined a Belief as a 'disposition to act'.  Accordingly, a Doubt can be defined as an 'indisposition to act'.  Thus, methodical Doubt can be defined as 'controlled indisposition to act'.  So, re-embodied, the Meditations presents a technique for achieving Autonomy, rather than, as it is usually interpreted, an intricate esoteric Epistemological exercise.

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