Autoconciencia y los límites de la razón: algunos problemas en la teoría cartesiana de la intuición de uno mismo

Abstract

This paper analyses the epistemological status of the knowledge of one’s soul presented by Descartes, and examines some criticisms made to it by some followers such as Malebranche. In particular, a study of Descartes’ vocabulary shows a tendency to take this intuition as a form of sense experience. This paper thus ponders whether the intuition we have of our own existence in Descartes is not to be understood as a form of inner sense rather than as a rational intuition, and it raises a new sort of objection to the cogito in the style of Arnauld’s circle.