What Chair?

It's been a while, but I finally have something worth writing about. First of all I never realized what a good name for a philosophy blog I have. As anyone who I've been in contact with these last two weeks can tell you I'm in philosophy mode. I've been reading Descartes' meditations, a fantastic read which I would recommend.

Now it's time to make my point. I will be making a journey similar to Descartes. Keep in mind this is not a counterargument or response to his work. As I will be following the logic of Descartes some necessary background knowledge will be necessary about the first two medetations. To be certain of all knowledge the foundation which it is based off of must be in itself itself impervious to doubt. Since our knowledge of the world comes from sensory perception, which is capable of deception, we must throw away all knowledge based on that foundation. Following this we cannot be sure of the truth of anything we experience. We can however be sure of our existence since we must exist in order to have experiences, whether they are reflections of reality or not. This is the famous cogito, which is usually phrased as I think therefore I am.

As I was reading meditation III I came to a startling discovery, once which is probably wrong since I am such a young philosophical mind, but I cannot stop thinking about it. If I (notice I am now using first person for the sake of ease. And I can't be sure any of you exist.) am a being which doesn't necessarily exist, but can be brought to exist, and does then something has caused me to exist. Each moment of my existence, even if thought of as independent of other moments of my life, does not entail that I will continue to exist. Also in each moment the same power is needed to sustain my existence, and this includes the first moment. If you have not yet reached the conclusion that I had, and continue to ponder, I will request of you to consider the following: my existence, which is the only thing I can be certain of, and my creation are directly caused by myself being a thinking thing. While you allow that statement to sink in think of this example: electrical power causes a light bulb to brighten, and the same power in the same quantity is necessary for its brightness to continue. I submit unto you this question: could I be the author of my own existence?