The self in the Cartesian brain Shaun

It seems odd that after 370 years or so, since Descartes published his Meditations (1641), we are still wrestling with his thought. Not just philosophers, but scientists who study the mind, as well (see, e.g., Edelman 2006). By the time Descartes himself arrives at his Sixth Meditation, he is wresting with his own thought. Insofar as he defined the self as a thinking thing (res cogitans) in the Second Meditation, he seems to be debating with himself as he attempts to work out how precisely the body comes into play with the mind. That the two things (mind and body) interact, he is sure. His theoretical dualism is still a problem, but practically speaking he knows that body and brain (at least the pineal gland) have something to do with cognition and self. And he is almost certain of this. The degree of certitude he has about bodily involvement in cognition, however, is not as great as the certitude he found in the Second Meditation concerning the self as thinking thing. This seemed to him to be the one thing beyond doubt. He gains a high degree of certitude about the body, however, only by bringing God into the picture. The very quick version of what happens between the Second and the Sixth Meditation is that Descartes attempts to prove (1) that God exists, (2) that (by definition) God is not a deceiver, and (3) that since our capacities for judgment are God-given, we should trust our judgments as long as we are careful to follow proper methods. Hence our judgment that the body has something to do with the self and our cognitive life seems clear. The problem is, whether God exists or not, Descartes argument for the existence of God is questionable, and we have good reasons to doubt its validity. Of course the very hypothesis that God exists is not something with which modern science wrestles. We've learned that this is simply a question that empirical science cannot address. As a result, absent Descartes' theological solution to his epistemological quandary, science and philosophy are thrown back to the earlier Meditations, and specifically, setting God aside, they find themselves wrestling with the evil demon. The evil demon is a thought experiment devised by Descartes in the First Meditation to buoy up the extremely strong doubt that gets his meditations off the ground. There seems to be no way …