Tin Man

The double negation on the part of reflection, carried to its ultimate extreme, results in the conceptualization of man as machine. Descartes, whose thought provides as early example of the philosophy of reflection, raises this possibility in his well-known fantasy of the human automation:

I remember, that when looking from a window and saying I see men who pass in a street, I really do not see them, but infer that what I see is men. . . And yet what do I see from the window but hats and coats which may cover automatic machines.

Hegel drawn out the full and ominous implications of Descartes’ image by describing the impact of calculative thinking upon philosophical thought. ~ Page 92