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Descartes Meditation 1 Analysis

1464 Words6 Pages

Diana Palma
Professor Klyng
Philosophy 1
1 May 2018
Descartes: Meditations In Meditations I, Descartes begins by stating he must start to build new foundations for the false beliefs he had been convinced of since his youth. He concludes he cannot find knowledge in the world in places like school and consequently decides to focus on his mind and doubt all his beliefs until he finds one that cannot be doubted. All up to the present time his knowledge was learned through the senses; but the senses are deceptive (Descartes). He states he cannot deny the obvious, such as doubting if his body belongs to him, but he is man capable of dreaming and in those dreams, there are no indications where he could distinguish between reality from sleep. Although …show more content…

He concluded he does not have a body and there is no certainty. Consequently, he begins to wonder if he exists. The purpose of the evil genius at the end of the first Meditation continued into the second is to establish his existence. Descartes argues that if there is in fact an evil genius deceiving him, he is certain he exists because the spirit must deceive someone, and that someone is him. He concludes that even if this spirit deceives him, he cannot doubt he exists. When he establishes he exists because he can be deceived, he states “I must finally conclude that this proposition. I am, I exist, is necessarily true…” (Descartes). Descartes took to the concept of radical skepticism in the first meditations until he established his famous argument; that is, he decided to doubt all his beliefs until he arrived in a belief he cannot doubt. He resolved his skepticism with the evil genius argument by recognizing to himself that he is thinking substance no god or demon can make him doubt. The concept is important to Descartes because he tries to make sense of human nature through radical …show more content…

In the third meditation titled, Of God, that He Exists, Descartes purpose is to prove God is the cause of our ideas. He begins by assorting his thoughts into different kinds. There are three sources for ideas which can be innate, adventitious or invented by us. Descartes then tries to determine how does he know the things he is certain of. He concludes the knowledge of his existence are clear and distinct perceptions therefore they are certain (SparkNotes Editor). He establishes that anything that is clear and distinct is true and he uses this to prove the existence of God. He begins considering God as a substance created by himself and everything else but realizes his idea of God has more objective reality, an innate idea that is present at in our minds when we are born, rather than formal reality, which is simple reality. He states, “I am substance, nevertheless I should have the idea of an infinite substance-since I am finite-…” (Descartes). Descartes doubts come from his awareness of a more perfect being. He cannot doubt the existence of God because he has a clear perception of his existence. Descartes then questions whether he is on his way to be a perfect being, but he quickly disregards this idea because although his knowledge may grow and more, he does not believe it “can ever be infinite, since it will never reach a point so high that it will be unable to attain any greater

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The power of belief shapes events into hardline certainties and creates situations where opinions will define the term success. In John Patrick Shanley’s story Doubt: A Parable, Sister Aloysius forms doubts about Father Flynn’s actions and diligently tries to expose Father Flynn based off of negligible evidence. A Catholic school in the Bronx is stuck at the crossroads as a rigid disciplinarian nun and the liberal parish priest share different views pertaining not only to their religion. The principal, Sister Aloysius, accuses Father Flynn of having inappropriate relations with the school’s first black student. She goes on a personal crusade to expunge Father Flynn from St. Nicholas without a fragment of validation expect her moral certitude.

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Descartes then attempts to define what he is. He previously believed that he had a spirit and body, by methods for which he was fed, moved, could sense, absorb space, had a distinct area and think. Each one of those methods are thrown into uncertainty except thinking. Since he can think, he should exist. He thinks about whether he no longer exists once his reasoning comes to a halt.

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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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Analysis on 3rd meditation of Rene Descartes on Existence of God In his third meditation, named “The existence of God”, Descartes proves that God exists and the only cause of God is our clear and distinct perception. In previous meditations Descartes proved that he is a thinking thing, he exists, but now he is still in doubt and is asked by questions like where his existence came from, where his ideas or thoughts came from, why they appear in his mind. The raising so many questions makes me think too as a reader and imbued in Descartes’ thinking. That 's why I chose this argument to clarify and explain the chain of his thoughts and how he came to the conclusion about the existence of God.

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However since we already have an idea of God as this perfect and infinite being, he must exist. Furthermore, since the natural light clears deception as an imperfection as well as not existing, God is a non-deceiver, he exist and is perfect. After the cogito argument and natural light examination of the deceptive God, Descartes discards the hypothesis that God is a deceiver. Since God is all-good, he would not deceive us. For that reason, Descartes introduces the evil demon/genius instead.

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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.

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Descartes uses his new knowledge of his existence as the basis of his argument that God exists. He reasons his existence by simply saying (after much contemplation) “I think, therefore I am.” By proving his existence, he also had to throw out most of his old beliefs except for one that he

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These are just some of the questions that he asks himself throughout the first two meditations. Descartes states one good argument in his first meditation called “What can be Questioned”: [“I am like a prisoner who happens to enjoy an imaginary freedom during sleep, and then begins to suspect he is asleep; he is afraid to wake up, and connives at the agreeable illusion.] So I willingly slip

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In the sixth meditation, Descartes postulates that there exists a fundamental difference in the natures of both mind and body which necessitates that they be considered as separate and distinct entities, rather than one stemming from the other or vice versa. This essay will endeavour to provide a critical objection to Descartes’ conception of the nature of mind and body and will then further commit to elucidating a suitably Cartesian-esque response to the same objection. (Descartes,1641) In the sixth meditation Descartes approaches this point of dualism between mind and matter, which would become a famous axiom in his body of philosophical work, in numerous ways. To wit Descartes postulates that he has clear and distinct perceptions of both

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Within his first argument he views god as a perfect being. In his eyes it is more perfect to exist than not too, hence why god exists. Descarte raises the question of god’s existence within the third meditation and follows up on the topic in more detail throughout the fifth meditation. His beliefs are solely based on the theory of innate ideas (ie. ideas found within oneself)

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Descartes makes the Evil Demon argument to neither prove the existence of such a demon or construct a better understanding of this source of deceit. But rather to destroy the foundations in which he has built all his bias on and rebuild his knowledge from scratch. It works to make us speculate everything while doubting the beliefs and senses we hold so true. This never-ending doubt gives rise to a new question, how do I know that

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Rene Descartes argues that since he is capable of being deceived, therefore knows that he is a “thinking thing” (Descartes 65). First, Descartes questions the existence of everything, he begins to doubt if anything is real. After this, he continues by addressing beliefs that rest on his senses, questioning things such as his dreams and how his senses delude him during his sleep. He then continues addressing how the truths of arithmetic and geometry may not be immune to radical doubt. Although the truths of arithmetic and geometry seem so concrete, Descartes continues by supposing that there may exist an “evil genius” who “has employed all his energy to deceive me[him]” (Descartes 65).

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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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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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The validity of Descartes’ model of knowledge is further questioned when Descartes seem to use God’s existence to escape this flaw in logic. Descartes wants to prove that God exist by claiming it as a clear and distinct perception. However, in order to proof that he has to rely on his clear and distinct perception which is confirmed by God. The proof is known as the "Cartesian Circle. " By claiming both that our clear and distinct perceptions are true if God exist and that we know that God exist as we can clearly and distinctly perceive the idea of God.

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