What Am I?

In his Meditations, Ren''e Descartes asks, "what am I?" His initial answer is "a man." But he soon discards it: "But what is a man? Shall I say ''a rational animal''? No: for then I should inquire what an animal is, what rationality is, and in this way one question would lead down the slope to harder ones." Instead of understanding what a man is, Descartes shifts to two new questions: "What is Min...