Understanding the Nature of Self and Ideas in Thought

The first truth I think is a criterion of truth and certainty. Not common knowledge, no formal knowledge of mathematics or knowledge of nature can ensure a solid foundation. This waiver can only be given as long as I can doubt everything and renounce everything. The existence of the self as the subject of thought is immediately evident; the mind is imposed on the act of thinking itself, which involves the existence of self in a single act of self-consciousness. The self appears to us as thinking while existing. Many aspects of self are expendable; all that is problematic is dispensable in doubt. I could not possibly give up my existence until I cease to think. The thinking self is certainly an idea that comes to my mind clearly—the cogito is imposed on the mind immediately, is clear and shows itself, and is different from other ideas. The criterion of truth and certainty allows us to contrast works to discover any truths.

Self and the ideas I have been shown as a thinking entity (cogito) are all thought; objects of thought have ideas—we have ideas as objects of thought. I try to show that there is no other reality besides the self and ideas. We must distinguish a subject of knowledge—thinking ideas are being questioned; ideas in the mind of the subject are the event object to which ideas refer, and that is different from the ideas themselves. The subject and the ideas are undoubted; only references to objects of the ideas are problematic. Ideas are actions undertaken by the mind—in the content of referential ideas, they are not the same as those presented to us objectively. Advertencias: Ideas come from our external experience. We think because the external world has become problematic for the application of methodical doubt. Factitious ideas are those which we build by combining other ideas. Inanits are the ideas that appear from the outside; they do not depend on us, but we are imposed upon by them, proved necessary and without our control. There are no proper ideas; the error lies precisely in how we judge them hastily—intended to refer to a supposed reality beyond ideas. Human knowledge is problematic; ideas and knowledge correspond to these ideas.