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Words: | Submitted: Fri Jan 28 2005
... that we cannot know if the presupposition is true since breathing indeed presumes the existence of a body which we doubt. In order for the above argument to be valid we need to add another premise: I think. Anything that thinks exists. I exist. If we rely on Burman, whose notes are quoted by Williams, Descartes did admit that the suppressed premise 'anything that thinks exists' is 'presupposed by the cogito'3. But now we can doubt this premise: 'Anything that thinks exists'. Would an Artificial Intelligence computer exist if it thought to itself that it existed? Or, on the contrary, would those with some kind of a serious brain damage that would not allow them to think, not exist? At this point we can say that just as there are reasons for us to doubt the existence of our bodies, there are reasons to doubt the existence of our minds. Depending on whatever we ...
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