Significance of Statement "I Doubt that I Exist" to the Descartes' Philosophy

Descartes PhilosophyBy (Name)TutorDate
Descartes begins Part 1 of the Principles by calling all our beliefs into doubt. The exercise is meant to free us from the reliance on the senses so that we can begin to contemplate on the purely intellectual truths. The statement that is made by Descartes that “I doubt that I exist” is in fact logically incoherent. It is a fact that I cannot have the capacity for doubt if I do not exist (James 2008). As such, the famous phrase would have then been said, "I doubt. Therefore I am." It is for this reason that the cogito appears to have stopped the skeptical worries dead in their tracks while the other clear and distinct impressions fall momentarily prey to doubt.
A large number of people beginning with the earliest readers of Descartes have questioned the working ability of the cogito as an argument. The cogito raises questions such as “Do you know you exist, they ask, just from the act of thinking”. You can come up with various ways of attacking the statement, but you will find that they all rest on misreading. The cogito is one of the rare philosophical joys since it is an argument that cannot be refuted as long as the reader has correctly understood it. As a matter of fact, most of the objections to the cogito rise because of misguided attempts to reconstruct the statement as a syllogism.[James, Fieser. 2008. Great Issues in Philosophy. /staff/jfieser/120.]
In the syllogism, it is presented in the following ways, (1) Whatever that thinks exists (2) I think (3) therefore, I exist. When the argument is presented in this form, obviously there is no beyond doubt that there is no certain reason that should make one believe the truth that is found in...