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The philosophy of Emmanuel kant
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In addition, due to dreams mainly consisting of objects and events, Descartes believed that there is no reason to doubt general beliefs as much as physical objects as 3+2 still equals 5, and a square will always have four sides (14). As a result of this, Descartes concluded that there is a degree of truth in objects we sense as those concepts must have come from somewhere,
The reading of Descartes, Discourse on Method focused on the idea of what is truth? In the reading he wants to find the actual truth where it is certain. Descartes argument is persuasive we can’t that we can’t just look back at history and believe it as “Truth” because it has been tainted history can be biased. If you look for the capital truth it will be insignificant. You cannot disregard certain things because there’s a process that leads you to multiple paths of understanding.
Descartes believed we experience things through are senses and that everything we think exists is only through our belief. He came up with “ I think therefore I am”. He determined that only things he could accept were those that his mind proved to be reason and true. In doing the experiment, I could hear the hum of my computer, my grandmother talking on the phone, and my dog barking.
Descartes believes that certain things, such as size/shape, number/quantity, and a duration of time are clear ideas. They are qualities of an object that an object possesses that are not subjective to the observer- they are clearly objective and do not change. Other things are more subjective- such as colour (changes according to
However, Descartes is indeed certain of the fact that he is a thinking being, and that he exists. As a result of this argument, Descartes makes a conclusion that the things he perceives clearly and distinctly cannot be false, and are therefore true (Blanchette). This clear and distinct perception is an important component to the argument that Descartes makes in his fifth meditation for the existence of God. This paper explains Descartes ' proof of God 's existence from Descartes ' fifth meditation, Pierre Gassendi 's objection to this proof, and then offers the paper 's author 's opinion on both the proof and objection.
Descartes gave a few arguments that God exists and is real. Desocrates believed our idea of God is that God is a perfect being, he believed he is more perfect to exist than not to exist. Desocrates also believed that God is a infinite being. Descartes idea would be that God gave us this idea to type this paragraph about him so he must be real. When he thinks negative of an idea or thought he wonders if an evil demon plotted those thoughts.
Descartes assumed first that it was God, who deceived us, but with the conclusion that God is all-good, he instead conclude that an evil demon exist. This evil demon possess the same power to deceive us, which God also would possess. God is perfect. Since humans have the ability to think of a being more perfect then themselves, then this being must have planted the idea in our mind. With the knowledge now that God is existing, perfect and is a non-deceiver – due to him being all-good –, Descartes can now move on to explain why material objects
Existence is something that can be imagined and therefore is false and a fallacy. How does Descartes really know he exists maybe he is just imaging it all and that his premises behind the existence of God are fake as well. If someone exist then they must have been born which would mean that Descartes parents where the ones who brought him into existence, and their parents brought them in to existence and so on and so on. This would mean that God did not create Descartes existence but that someone way far down the chain of human existence started it
Descartes, in his Meditations on First Philosophy, used a method of doubt; he doubted everything in order to find something conclusive, which he thought, would be certain knowledge. He found that he could doubt everything, expect that he was thinking, as doubting is a type of thinking. Since thinking requires a thinker, he knew he must exist. According to Descartes if you are able to doubt your existence, then it must mean that you exist, hence his famous statement cogito ergo sum which is translated into ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Descartes said he was able to doubt the existence of his body and all physical things, but he could not doubt that his mind exists.
Addressing the problems with Descartes is not a very difficult task to undertake. Descartes theory of Epistemology has been the subject matter of countless responses and prolonged debate and has been historically rather resilient. The main problem with Descartes argument, however, is that it relies too heavily on immaterial assumptions. Descartes’s use of god as a main tenet which he bases his theory around provides too much room for criticism. Proving the existence of god is a herculean task which Descartes does an admirable job of proving, but through trying to prove his “ontological argument” he seems to make some illogical leaps in order to reach his conclusions.
In this mediation, Descartes supports the theory of the essence of material objects by concluding that there are many objects, geometrical and mathematical, that exist that neither depend on his mind nor exist in the material world, yet are real and have truth to them. He then explains how a triangle’s properties, or “essences” (such as following the Pythagorean theorem and having three sides), are what make the triangle a triangle. Descartes extends this idea to, again, prove the existence of God by explaining that just as the essences of a triangle allow for it to exist, the essences or properties of God (existence) prove that God exists after all (Perry et al., p.
I believe Descartes brings God into the picture because he cannot know what is right and what is wrong until he figures out the nature of God, and, in fact, whether or not God even exists. When Descartes says, “But in order to remove even this basis for doubting, I should at the first opportunity inquire whether there is a God, and, if there is, whether or not he can be a deceiver. For if I am ignorant of this, it appears I am never capable of being completely certain about anything else.” –Pg. 71. This shows that Descartes feels he needs to know the nature of God before he can know anything else because he is in constant fear of being deceived.
For example, a rock can exist all by itself. This indicates that Descartes proposed that God if he wanted could create a world of beings that could exist all by itself. Therefore what he means to say is that if the mind and body are really distinct, they could exist all by themselves without being dependant on each other. Although he has changed a bit in his stance from his books like Discourse and Meditations which has versions like the First, the Second, the Sixth and so on, he was still critiqued by two of his successors, Nicolas Malebranche and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Malebranche developed an internal critique of Descartes theory of the mind.
The next step that Descartes uses in the second meditation is the existence of this Godly figure. He questions his own beliefs with that of the God, and argues that a mind should be capable of thinking for them to be of existence, “Is there not some God, or some other being by whatever name we call it, which puts these reflections into my mind? That is not necessary, for is it not possible that I am capable of producing them myself?” He then puts forward that for one to be deceived by this “evil demon” as he describes it, they have to exist to be deceived.
Part of the ways that it is proved is when he gives the example of the triangle and being able to mentally see the triangle and its three sides, although if we are asked to see a Chiliagon we are not able to see it because we are not accustomed used to seeing such massive shape. Regarding the chiliagon Descarte states “that he is in the habit of imagining something whenever he thinks of corporeal thing he may construct in his mind a confused representation of some figure but it is clear that it is not a chiliagon” (pg 222). This lets us know that understanding is more powerful than imagination and is our secondary highlight quality it allows the possibility that imagination can be based if things outside of our minds like corporeal