“Ego sum, ego existo”: Descartes on the Verge of Heresy
“Ego sum, ego existo”: Descartes on the Verge of Heresy
This chapter examines Descartes's references to the biblical sum qui sum and Ego sum in Descartes's Meditations, specifically from the Second Meditation onward, and how, “[b]y the idea of God,” Descartes might really not have meant “anything other than all men usually mean when they speak.” It posits that these references do not point to God, and that furthermore it was never God who designates himself in this manner. From a reference or an intersection inscribed in a literary heritage, this chapter thus arrives at a rupture, a brutal denegation, which might prove unacceptable to the faithful of revealed religion and consequently to the theologians.
Keywords: sum qui sum, Ego sum, Descartes's Meditations, Rene Descartes, God, religion, Cartesian metaphysics, consciousness
Fordham Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .