ABSTRACT
When Russell claimed that Descartes' initial premiss should have been "There are thoughts" rather than "I am thinking," he was assuming that the phenomenon of thinking should be interpreted (or conceived of) as the occurrence of ultimately subjectless events rather than as the presence of an attribute to some subject. Russell's assumption here is debatable and requires supporting argumentation. Like Aristotle before him, Descartes conceived of the world as a system of substances possessing attributes; Russell, at least in his later career, conceived of the world as he thought contemporary physics required - as a system of "events." 20 The question of whose view is preferable can be adequately decided only when all the philosophical cards are on the table. Descartes' assumption that he is right depends largely on the case he could make for the truth of the principles he tacitly appealed to in his method of systematic doubt and in the cogito that he built upon it.
