ipl-logo

Pros And Cons Of Rene Descartes

689 Words3 Pages

Descartes idea of himself originates from the reality that he is a thinking thing. “I think therefore I am.” Descartes develops this concept through his mind, in which is directly rooted in his perceptions and/or senses of the world around him. Ideally, the notions constructed by senses embody a rationale of truth in Descartes mind.
Descartes can’t use empirical evidence to explain the cause of the idea of God because empirical evidence is merely the causation of our senses and experiences. In that sense, Descartes can’t use his senses and/or his experiences to understand God because there is a lack of direct perception of the representation of God; therefore, there is a lack of knowledge about the nature of God existing as a part of Descartes …show more content…

Descartes considers the light of nature to be absolute and without a doubt truthful.
Two examples of causes and effects are if you smoke excessively, you increase the chances of being diagnosed with lung cancer and due to Sun’s gravitational pull, the planets orbit the sun. These examples support the idea of how the cause and effect correlate with one another in rational manner.
Descartes cannot be the cause of the idea of God because the idea of God can only be created by an infinite being which is accepted by human consciousness. God is all powerful and knowing and thus is responsible for creating the perfect thought of his being. …show more content…

Descartes understands there is an existence of a superior being(God) due to the knowledge humanity has obtained. Indeed, certain ideas created can only be obtained through our mind and not our senses. Therefore, the idea of God, leads Descartes to believe there is a superior being influencing the ways of humanity. Hume on the other hand, relies on empirical evidence of the universe to prove that God exists. The natural Phenomena’s of the universe are clear representations of a superior creator: God. Human Intelligence is limited to select area of expertise and can’t compare to the elements of nature: gravity, seasonal change, time, day and

Show More
Related
1654 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More
1377 Words | 6 Pages

1) In the allegory of the cave, Plato’s main goal is to illustrate his view of knowledge. A group of prisoners have been chained in a cave their whole lives and all they have ever been exposed to were shadows on the wall and voices of people walking by. The prisoners in the cave represent humans who only pay attention to the physical aspects of the world (sight and sound). Once one of them escapes and sees the blinding light, all he wants is to retreat back to the cave and return to his prior way of living. This shows that Plato believes enlightenment and education are painful, but the pain is necessary for enlightenment and it is worth it.

Read More
582 Words | 3 Pages

When addressing what Descartes believes to be the fundamental source of human error it is first important to clarify what Descartes insists is not the source of human error. Right at the start of his fourth meditation Descartes specifies that God cannot be the source of error since that would require deception. Since deception is a form of imperfection God cannot deceive us for he is perfect (AT 53). Since God is not the source of error, and all of our abilities are given to us by God who cannot deceive us then our ability to make judgement also cannot be the source of error when used properly (AT 54). This means that since it cannot be God or the faculties given to us by God as the source of error, then it must be something within us, something related to our finite nature, distinct

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
862 Words | 4 Pages

In this paper, I will deliver a reconstruction of Descartes’ Cogito Argument and my reasoning to validate it as indubitable. I will do so by justifying my interpretations through valid arguments and claim, by showcasing examples with reasoning. Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher of the 17th century, who formulated the philosophical Cogito argument by the name of ‘cogito ergo sum,’ also known as “I think, therefore, I am.” Rene was a skeptic philosopher amongst many scholastic philosophers of his time. To interpret his cogito argument as indubitable and whether it could serve as a foundational belief, he took a skeptical approach towards the relations between thoughts and existence.

Read More
1919 Words | 8 Pages

This essay will now begin the task of laying out the objection to Descartes’

Read More
301 Words | 2 Pages

DNA has been an essential method for examination for officers of the law. This method has assist numerous amount people to get convicted of a crime or to prove innocent of a person of any wrongdoing. In the year of 1992, the Innocence Project was established, the motive for this was to examine previous court cases and by utilize DNA testing, justifying wrong convictions of innocent people. Since the beginning of the Innocence Project, this project has help hundreds of convictions be overturned in the criminal justice system. The average time serve is 14 years in prison prior to vindicate and set free.

Read More
1357 Words | 6 Pages

Anh Nguyen - PHIL 256 Final Descartes’s arguments for the existence of God and its fallacies Descartes (1596 – 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist. At an early age, he received his education from the Jesuits and the experience with the Aristotelian ideals there upset him, yet the field of mathematics fascinated him with its precision, uniform certainty and necessity. This dissonance eventually planted a seed into his mind and drove him to question about the nature of knowledge, namely whether it can match mathematics’ indubitableness. Descartes’ attempts in resolving the problem resulted in his Meditations of First Philosophy (1641), which was written in response to queries regarding his new philosophical basis for a novel way to approach the system of knowledge. Upon its publication, Descartes’ Meditations provoked controversy among the Aristotelians – indeed it was an assault on the Aristotelian

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

In this paper, I will deliver a reconstruction of Descartes’ Cogito Argument and my reasoning to validate it as indubitable. I will do so by justifying my interpretations through valid arguments and claim, by showcasing examples with reasoning. Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher of the 17th century, who formulated the philosophical Cogito argument by the name of ‘cogito ergo sum,’ also known as “I think, therefore, I am.” Rene was a skeptic philosopher amongst many scholastic philosophers at his time. He took a skeptical approach towards the relations between thoughts and existence, to interpret his cogito argument as indubitable and whether it could serve as a foundational belief.

Read More
945 Words | 4 Pages

The debate of the existence of God has always been a controversial topic and has been going on for centuries. Till this day it is still a debate. We have people who strongly believe in God and others who questions his existence. Those who have strong faith will try to convince everyone who does not believe in God that he exits. They will try to come up with arguments to show he is real and good.

Read More
1104 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1275 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
1404 Words | 6 Pages

Logically speaking, Hume’s theory makes the most sense due to the knowledge learned from cause and effect. I understand the relationship between the beginning to its adjacent cause and it applies to everyday life in society. Unlike Hume, Descartes suggests the origin of knowledge is logical and through self-doubt. Yet, he is unable to provide proof of the existence of god despite playing a substantial role in his theory.

Read More
1801 Words | 8 Pages

He borrows from other scholastic views about the universe and God. Most of his understanding of personal identity immensely contributed to Locke's theory later. Descartes early views on philosophy helped in trying to explain the concept of mind, consciousness, and self. His argument is because thought is the foundation of all knowledge, which contradicts scholastic understanding on the

Read More
1431 Words | 6 Pages

Rationalism and empiricism are two methods that can be understood under the concept of epistemology, psychology and philosophy of psychology to understand where the source of knowledge comes from. “In psychology and its philosophy, empiricism and rationalism concern the sources of psychological states and capacities that may include, but are not confined to, state of knowledge (Longworth, 2009).” Rationalism states a priori knowledge, deduction and the concept of an active mind. According to rationalist, our minds have innate set of principles and skills. If we only use our logic in accordance with these principles is enough to obtain accurate information about all the objects that make up the universe.

Read More

More about Pros And Cons Of Rene Descartes

Related Topics

Open Document