Subjectivity in Science

The present work makes an attempt to understand and evaluate the Cartesian principle - Cogito, ergo sum primarily in the light of some developments in contemporary philosophy and so to treat it at a new level. A word may be said here about the need felt for this kind of treatment of the Cartesian principle after these four intervening centuries. But the 'spirit' as understood by F. Waismann may not be what it may appear to others. There might be alternative and equally cogent accounts of the spirit. In fact, even the Cartesian Cogito* principle has been interpreted in different ways: either as founding the sciences or as introducing the element of subjectivity in philosophy. The present work attempts to bring under one comprehensive account both these interpretations of the Cogito, ergo sum and to do justice to what Descartes intended and consequently, to accommodate the two parallel, if not rival, accounts of the Cartesian spirit.