Solipsism then they must be identical, as in indistinguishable from each other and therefore one and the same thing. Dualists then attempt to identify attributes of mind that are lacked by matter (such as privacy or intentionality) or vice versa (such as having a certain temperature or electrical charge). One notable application of the identity of indiscernibles was by René Descartes in his "Meditations on First Philosophy". Descartes concluded that he could not doubt the existence of "himself" (the famous "cogito ergo sum" argument), but that he "could" doubt the (separate) existence of "his" body. From this, he inferred that the
Cogito, ergo sum distinctiveness of self-evident propositions — to establish true and justified propositions despite having adopted a method of generalized doubt. As a consequence of this demonstration, Descartes considers science and mathematics to be justified to the extent that their proposals are established on a similarly immediate clarity, distinctiveness, and self-evidence that presents itself to the mind. The originality of Descartes's thinking, therefore, is not so much in expressing the "cogito" — a feat accomplished by other predecessors, as we shall see — but on using the "cogito" as demonstrating the most fundamental epistemological principle, that science and mathematics are justified by