y thing that can be proven is that he exists as a thinking thing? Another problem Descartes faces is a connection between the mind and the body. Exist means to stand outside. The mind has no extension; it takes up no physical space, does not exist in a place, and is not limited to a place or time. It can travel at will to another place. The mind can travel in time to plan ahead or reflect back. The mind, in effect, stands outside reality and can readily be proven to exist. The body is defined entirely by extension and location. It does not even necessarily exist and has none of the properties of the mind. How then are these two things connected? Descartes never explains this except to say that they are. Descartes origin of knowledge comes from personal reflection, a meditation. He evaluates and questions his own existence and cannot continue until he proves and has an understanding of it. Even though he can prove his own existence he can't prove anything outside of it. To Descartes all true knowledge is solely knowledge of the self, its existence, and relation to reality.Ren Descartes approach to the theory of knowledge plays a prominent role in shaping the agenda of early modern philosophy. It continues to affect (some would say "infect") the way problems in epistemology are conceived today. Students of philosophy (in his own day, and in the history since) have found the distinctive features of his epistemology to be at once attractive and troubling; features such as the emphasis on method, the role of epistemic foundations, the conception of the doubtful as contrasting with the warranted, the skeptical arguments of the First Meditation, and the cogito ergo sum--to mention just a few that we shall consider. Depending on context, Descartes thinks that different standards of warrant are appropriate. The context for which he is most famous, and on which the present treatment will focus, is that of investigating First Philosophy. The fi...
