Siyi Lin Philosophy Essay 2/Meditation III Word count: As Descartes mentions in Meditation I, we assume God is an powerful demon but how can we prove that God exists? In Meditation III, he tries to prove the existence of God through two ways.
Epistemology is an area in philosophy in which it is the theory of knowledge. In Descartes’ Meditations, his epistemology is known as foundationalism. It is the foundation of modern skepticism. In Meditations I, the Meditator feels the
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 expounds upon the concept of error and its correlation to free will among humans and to the entity God in one of his passages, “Fourth Meditation.” He has proclaimed the existence of God in his previous meditation and further questions the perfection of humans and the issue with error. Humans, as the creation of God, should not be committing mistakes due to the claim that God is an all-perfect being and is not a deceiver. However, Descartes understands that humans are prone to error despite having an infinite will that would supposedly prevent them from doing any wrong. The philosopher therefore proclaims that error is a result from humans who attempt to utilize their knowledge and will simultaneously, which will result in mistakes.
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
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.
In Meditation on First Philosophy, Descartes states that the realities he believed to be certain during his young years have been false. Which therefore causes him to embark on the journey to destroy all the opinions he had believed as the truth, and accept only those claims that are certain, firm, and permanent in the sciences. Deconstructing these pre-conceptions requires a process of methodological doubt where he withdraws from the senses; that “all that up to the present time [he has] accepted as most true and certain I have learned either from the senses or through the senses; but it has sometimes proved that these senses are deceptive” (Descartes, 1-7). Descartes believes that at any moment, he could be dreaming, or his sense deceived by God or an evil demon. He ascertains his own existence through a clear and distinct perception guaranteed by God.
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
Meditation is the introspective process that involves the mind turning back in and upon itself, removing itself from the material world and focusing its attention inward. Descartes employs meditation to detach the minds from external influences, to think and analyze philosophy from the original foundations. This brings us to Descartes First Meditation, with the introduction of the method of doubt, he presents his philosophical project and claims that in order to complete his project he needs to question the truth behind all his beliefs. He attempts to accomplish this impossible feat because as he’s aged he has realized the false foundations that he has held onto thus far and the ideas he’s built on them. To be able to tear down these beliefs,
Précis on Descartes's Meditation One It is necessary to question the foundation on which knowledge is built upon in order to derive absolute facts and truths. It would be pain in the neck to examine every opinion individually, since opinions are endless and would take enormous amount of time to address each one. That is when the principle of attacking the foundation comes in the picture. It is far more reasonable to cut the trunk of a tree than to cut each of its branches one by one.
Descartes – in his First Meditation - notes that he sleeps and there are many occasions when he thinks he is awake and “sitting by the fire” although he is lying in his bed asleep and dreaming. As Descartes claims there is no way to be certain that one is asleep or awake. Movies, like Inception and Total Recall make his argument conceivable, although based on my experiences it can be refuted. The state of “being awake” differs from the state of “dreaming” in various ways. To start with the differences first of all, we need to examine the real world and its happenings day by day.
It is precisely in Meditation I that Descartes begins to outline his anthropology by starting from the beginning, ridding himself of all his preconceived notions, and distancing himself from the three faculties (reason, imagination, and sensation) through which we apprehend the world in order to ultimately achieve true and certain knowledge. Through the faculty of reason, Descartes with his universal doubt deduces that we cannot be certain of any of the three faculties that are necessary for how humans perceive and interact with the world. As a result, Descartes come to the only definitive conclusion that he can make, that in order to doubt or think, there must be someone doing the doubting or thinking and therefore, he, Descartes must exist. A corollary of this revelation is that for Descartes, the only thing distinguishes humans are their minds; in other words, the thing that makes humans human are their minds, an absolutely immaterial object. For Descartes, humans are a combination of substances, an accidental unification between the vital thinking mind, the true essence of a person, and the body, a mere machine-like extension of the mind.
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.
For this essay, slavery refers to the forced bondage of Africans within the West Indies, as carried out by European nations such as Britain, Spain, France and Portugal. Though each nation entered into the trade of West African slaves at different times, they all did so in pursuit of cheap labour to work the fields in the West Indies that provided Europe with sugar, tobacco and cotton, to name a few of the luxury items produced by colonies as well as the taxes that governments levied against those in the colonies to fatten the government purse. The reasoning and timing of the abolition of slavery is varied across the nations that participated in the trade, each nation’s particular circumstance, whether social, economic or political in the late
Rene Descartes is considered as one of the most important founders of modern day philosophy. His greatest contribution to philosophy is his meditations. This paper aims at establishing what wax represents in Descartes meditations. In his second meditation, Descartes introduces the idea of wax freshly obtained from honeycombs.
