The Thoughts Of Descartes In Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Russell (1961: 547):

There remains, however, something that I cannot doubt: no demon, however cunning, could deceive me if I did not exist.  I may have no body: this might be an illusion.  But thought is different. 'While I wanted to think everything false, it must necessarily be that I who thought was something; and remarking that this truth, I think, therefore I am, was so solid and so certain that all the most extravagant suppositions of the sceptics were incapable of upsetting it, I judged that I could receive it without scruple as the first principle of the philosophy that I sought'.

Blogger Comments:

Through the lens of Systemic Functional Linguistics: Descartes thought that he could doubt the existence of the Agent or Range (Phenomenon) of his own mental Process, but thought that he could not doubt the existence of the Medium (Senser) of his own mental Process.  That is, while he doubted the existence of the outer domain of material processes, he was certain of the existence of the inner domain of mental processes.

I	think	therefore	I	am
1		x 2
Senser	Process: mental		Existent	Process: existential

Cf. the following, in which interpersonal metaphor brings Cartesian certainty more in line with the uncertainty of quantum mechanics:

I	think	I	think		therefore	I	think	I	am
1					x 2
a		‘ b			a			‘ b
Senser	Process: mental	Senser	Process: mental			Senser	Process: mental	Existent	Process: existential
mood Adjunct: probability		Subject	Finite	Predicator		mood Adjunct: probability		Subject	Finite
probably		I	think		therefore	probably		I	am