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Descartes Meditation 1 Analysis

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Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God through his six meditations. He first determines that the knowledge that humans have is based on too many unproven assumptions. This makes it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsities because many things go so far back in history that we have no actual proof of them . He explains that knowledge must be based upon universal doubt. Descartes says before knowing if anything is true you must first consider then all to be false, until they are actually proven guilty. Therefore,the would mean you would have to consider the thought of God to be false until you prove other wise. Descartes believes that the idea of God cannot be originated by himself so, God must be the cause of this …show more content…

He must know his own mind first before he can establish all the other things he knows. Then in Meditation 5, Descartes claims to know God clearly and distinctly also and this is a problem. If God is an infinite and perfect idea then God’s existence cannot be dependent upon a person knowing his or her own mind first. . Descartes then catches himself in puzzlement and basically says well the idea of God must be prior to my idea of myself. This means the idea of God was always there waiting for him to realize …show more content…

His theory of the existence of God refutes his conclusion that God is real. Descartes says God is as an infinitely good being. To say this he would have to be comparing God to his own imperfection so that idea would have to be created in his own mind. Also, Descartes principle of universal doubt says he cannot simply know whether his conception of God is correct or incorrect. He would first have, as a matter of his own principle, considered this conception as false until it is proven otherwise. Descartes tries to argue that we can only be sure of our clear and distinct perceptions if God exists and we can only know that God exist because we clearly and distinctly perceive the idea of God. If these are both true Descartes is guilty of circular reasoning. Therefore, Descartes cannot escape his own principle of doubt and he also is guilty of circular

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Possibly the most knowledgeable of the three, DesCartes is most concerned with “seeking the true method of arriving at a knowledge of everything” (110). DesCartes is so particular about making sure the knowledge he does have is actual knowledge, that he creates a method to being skeptical (111). He discerns that the only barrier to knowledge is what you haven’t seen or experienced to clearly be true. According to the French thinker, we know we exist, God exist, and that what we know comes through self observation and observation of others. Under these circumstances, there is no real limitation except to got out and learn what is

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Descartes is confounded by this so he will not admit anything since the idea is not yet known to him. He characterizes himself as a thing that basically thinks. What is thinking being? “It is a being which doubts, which understands, [which conceives,] which affirms, which denies, which wills, which rejects, which imagines also, and which perceives.” He has already established that he does exist, however denies that he is neither the body nor the spirit alone.

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There has to be something that is doing the doubting and Descartes is the one that is doing it. Also, he made his well known statement, “I think therefore I

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In the story The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind a young boy named William Kamkwamba wants to help his family by doing things that interest him. William is very determined and his curiosity is the driving factor behind him and what he does. When most people doubted him he showed them that he could do anything that he wanted. William was determined to not become a farmer like his father and wanted to do something in a science field after he found a book called Explaining Physics. When he found that book he realized he could help his family in ways they couldn’t imagine.

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Notre Dame ID: 902008117 In René Descartes ' Mediations on First Philosophy, Descartes abandons all previous notions or things that he holds to be true and attempts to reason through his beliefs to find the things that he can truly know without a doubt. In his first two meditations Descartes comes to the conclusion that all that he can truly know is that he exists, and that he is a thinking being. In his third meditation, Descartes concludes that he came to know his existence, and the fact that he is a thinking being, from his clear and distinct perception of these two facts. Descartes then argues that if his clear and distinct perception would turn out to be false, then his clear and distinct perception that he was a thinking being would not have been enough to make him certain of it (Blanchette).

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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.

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We know clear and distinct perceptions independently by God, and his existence provides us with a certainty we might not possess otherwise. However, another possible strategy would be to change Gods role in Descartes philosophy. Instead of seeing God as the validation of clear and distinct perceptions, rather see him as a safeguard against doubt. This strategy, however, is a problem since it re-constructs the Meditations – Philosophical work of Descartes –.This is because it would not be God, who is the ultimate foundation of knowledge, but the clear and distinct

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In Meditation 3, the Meditator is creating arguments about the existence of god. This is where Descartes explains different reasons/premises to why god exists. Throughout Meditation 3, Descartes goes back and forth with his arguments arguing one thing then creating a counter argument to it at while still focusing on the main thing which is does god exist. For those wondering whether god does really exist stay tuned into what Descartes says. The premises from the meditation that claim god doesn’t exist are weak and invalid, and fail to give enough evidence to support the thought that god does not exists, which would conclude that God does exist.

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Descartes search for knowledge starts with a self claim of doubt. Like we studied earlier, he doubts senses, his body, everything he has experienced in the outside world. Descartes didn’t want to simply become a cynic and just doubt something because it was the easy way out. He believes that doubt is able to move the analyst toward the elimination of mistake and will be given to knowledge. In the sixth Meditation, he continues on to differ between the mind and body.

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It seems as though Descartes relies on his mind to imagine this perfect being, and then relies on this perfect being to not deceive his mind; but if the perfect being doesn 't exist, his mind could be deceiving him. In other words, Descartes has a clear and distinct idea of God, and he can trust this idea because God exists and would not deceive him. But how does he know God exists? Because he has a clear and distinct idea of Him. This sounds to me as if he 's going in a circle with his argument.

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For how he can be certain that 2+2= 4 and not 5, how can he know for sure that he is not being deceived into believing the answer to be 5 due to a demon. But even if an evil demon did indeed exist, in order to be misled, Descartes himself must exist. As there must be an “I”, that can be deceived. Conclusively, upon Descartes’ interpretations we can come to decipher that in order for someone to exist they must indeed be able to think, to exist as a thinking thing.

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Descartes argues that one can exist because one has the capacity to think and therefore some part of him or her must exist for them to think. Through a series of meditations, Descartes wants to prove that one can possess true knowledge, a keystone with which one can build the rest of their beliefs on. As a result, Descartes describes the belief that one cannot rationally doubt their own existence as true knowledge and uses this as his keystone for further science. To build credibility for his argument, Descartes undergoes a series of meditations to prove that one cannot truly rationally doubt their existence. Anything in which Descartes finds a reason to rationally doubt, he treats as false until he discovers something that he cannot rationally

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Explain Descartes’ method of doubt. What is Descartes purpose in exercising this method? Descartes begins Meditation I by stating that in order for him to establish anything in the sciences that was constant, he would have to start from the foundations of all knowledge. By claiming this, he is adopting skepticism which is not him rejecting his beliefs, but doubting them.

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231 Words | 1 Pages

In the second meditation, Descartes said, " I am therefore, precisely speaking, only a thinking thing, that is, a mind (mens sive animus), understanding, or reason, terms whose signification was before unknown to me. I am, however, a real thing, and really existent; but what thing? The answer was, a thinking thing." He understood that the only way he could believe he existed was by continuing to ask questions, thinking, and try to understand his rationality. He tested his new foundation by doing experiments.

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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.

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