Comparing Descartes, Hume, And Carruthers

Epistemology is most simply the search for the truth. More specifically, Epistemology is looking for knowledge, truth, beliefs and justification for those beliefs. This unit on epistemology is all about searching for truths and how we know them to be true. During this unit, we have talked about many great philosophers and what their theories are on truth and how we can know truth. My belief is that what is true and how we can know it is a synthesis of Descartes, Hume, and Carruthers. I believe that all of these philosophers have something worth hearing and some bit of truth, however different they may be. I believe that we are all individuals that experience events and process them in our own way, so they are truths to us. However, there are also universal truths in this world

Thinking is all that we should do to learn about truth according to Descartes. He believed that our knowledge can only come from the mind because our senses can fool us. For an example, Descartes used wax. To the senses, it feels like wax, it tastes like wax, and even smells like wax. However, when it is heated up and melted down, it no longer feels like wax and it does not smell like the old wax. So how do you know it is still wax? Descartes says that this is why we cannot learn truth from our senses, because they can be deceived. The only way we would know it is wax is because our mind tells us it is wax and our mind can think about the idea of wax and understand that it is still wax because it did not go anywhere. Descartes also says that the only universal truths in this world are things that can be explained by math and physics. Math and physics never change and so therefore must be truths. Any concepts that can be explained through math must then also be truths. Descartes’ theory on knowledge is how I also know something to be true, if it can be explained through math, since there is no change, it must be universally