I'm Writing A Metaphysics Paper

[ChristinaTherese]

But...but what if we don't thin.....*poof*

I was just talking to friends about Descartes the other day. What if you're in a coma or something and not really thinking? Do you cease to exist? (Of course not, but what would be a good response?)

[TheLordsSouljah]

My lecturers have pop culture references (Descartes: THE MATRIX!)... one of them used his own dead cat for our Metaphysics course... Poor guy, I think he nearly cried talking about it....

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

I was just talking to friends about Descartes the other day. What if you're in a coma or something and not really thinking? Do you cease to exist? (Of course not, but what would be a good response?)

It's been a while since I've read Descartes, so my response may not be a correct refutation. However, insofar as we exist as long as we think (according to Descartes), we would need a better definition of what it means to think. Being in a coma is a good example, but I think that a Cartesian response would be something like 'The true essence of a human being lies in their mind: therefore, when someone is in a coma they cease to exist. They may still look like Bob, but Bob is no longer there.' A very gnostic approach. A simple way to refute this would be to point out that we are creatures of both body and soul, made in the image and likeness of God, and God has declared us "very good," and this includes our bodies. Maximus the Confessor would also provide a great argument against this, in that his entire theology is based on the role that mankind has as reconciler of the cosmos, uniting that which has been sundered through the angelic fall. When man fell, God became man to fulfill mankind's mission. We fulfill the purpose of the universe by understanding it, containing within our minds that which contains us (physically). If there were no physical things, there would be nothing for us to unite, and we wouldn't have a true purpose for existing. 

[Desert Walker]

That's what I wrote my paper about. Facing the nothing brings forth anxiety within an individual, and by means of this the person realizes their being. Epic and mind-twisting at the same time (then again, isn't that how good philosophy is determined?)

 

Interesting.  He also thought boredom, if correctly indulged, also resulted in the encounter with one's being.  In fact, it is one's being itself that one finds so boring.  Simply the bare fact of existing continuously as oneself and in-oneself-as-oneself.

 

[Remember to always use hyphenated word conjunctions when attempting to relate Heidegger's thought.]

 

Maybe this what Habermas had in mind when he wondered (to the dismay of some) whether post-modern philosophers were doing any very serious theoretical work, or were simply writing (not very good I might add) literature...