Beginning of Essay
Descartes is famed by is familiar notion, “I think therefore I am (Cogito, ergo sum.).” It is a conclusion he has reached in his second meditation after much deliberation on the existence of anything certain. After he discovers his ability to doubt a ....

Middle of Essay
.... his modes of thought, he remains uncertain of the reality of an external world. He doubts whether there is anything of material substance that provokes thought within him rather than it being conceived in his mind completely independent of anything else. Descartes then considers those reasons that have inclined him to believe these material things exist in the past. “I know by experience that these ideas do not depend upon my will, nor consequently upon myself, for often I notice them against my will... I feel heat, and therefore I believe that this feeling or idea of heat comes to me from something other than myself, namely from the fire ....