Certainty in a Selfless World

My current research project starts with the Cartesian question, what can be doubted?

Descartes own attempts to doubt everything lead him to the conclusion that his beliefs about the objective external world are subject to doubt; he might be dreaming or deceived by a demon, in which case these beliefs would be false. However, Descartes claims, his belief in his own existence is certain. And, more generally, his beliefs about his own internal world are certain. The task he then sets himself is to claw his way from this subjective world back to the objective world.

My aim is to show that Descartes initial attempt to doubt everything did not go far enough. I draw idea found in Lichtenberg to argue that the sceptical worries that afflict my beliefs about the external world apply equally to my belief that I exist, and so this belief too is in doubt.

Other philosophers who challenge the indubitability of my belief that I exist have nevertheless tended to agree with Descartes that I can be certain of thought, even if I cannot be certain that it is my thought. Lichtenberg, for example, famously says that Descartes should say 'it thinks' rather than 'I think'. I argue that this is not a stable conclusion. We can make no sense of the idea of thoughts without a thinker, nor of the idea of a subjective internal world without a subject. Far from reinstating the indubitability of my belief that I exist, however, this conclusion calls into question our grip on the very distinction between the objective external world and the subjective internal world. 

So it turns out that the domain of certainty is a selfless world. Such a world cannot be characterised in terms of its relativity or non-relativity to the subject, as are the internal and external worlds. It is a world where the subjective/objective distinction does not apply. With help from the work of various Buddhist thinkers I aim to explore and understand the selfless world, and to assess the prospects, and indeed the desirability, of returning from this world to the internal and external worlds.