René Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

Why do we ask questions? French philosopher René Descartes was unsatisfied with the broad answer of “to express doubt”. In Meditations on First Philosophy, he distinguished ordinary incredulity from academic skepticism by pointing out that “we are able to determine when our senses are not trustworthy” when faced with the former (Descartes, René). Since the publishing of the treatise in 1641(Descartes, René), various views about the nature of academic skepticism have emerged. According to one such contention named the “imperative-epistemic account”, asking questions is synonymous with issuing imperatives necessitating others to let the asker know about the answer (Cross, Charles). This type of knowledge was considered knowledge-wh, which encapsulates

All members must hold the central belief of an RKS as axiomatic knowledge (Lagemaat, Richard Van de). As the question of whether God exists or not cannot be viably reasoned or physically perceived, the knowledge is made axiomatic through faith – which represents trust in the secular sense (IB Diploma Program). The central role of faith in gaining epistemic certainty ultimately differentiates RKS from ethics or history. After the knowledge is made axiomatic, knowledge can be produced through argumentation over the interpretation of the respective doctrines in order to explain the meaning and purpose of life (Reed, Baron). As a result, the case study of Atheism – disbelief in God – can be viewed through the scope of RKS. KP in atheism is spearheaded by the various experts like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins (Frazier, Kelly). Importantly, the purpose of the KP is not simply to claim that God doesn’t exist; Dawkins wrote that the mission of his foundation was to “teach the value of science through secularism” (Dawkins, Richard). Nonetheless, the fact that god does not exist is present as axiomatic knowledge in the arguments (Abel, Reuben). These arguments are reasoned and developed through consensus as long is logical rigor is maintained (Dawkins, Richard) – suppressing the role of authority by providing a scale to judge the

At the center of the AoK is the process of testing hypotheses through empirical inquiry (). The knowledge produced must be able to withstand the test of experience and development – leaving the AoK susceptible to several pivotal shifts of thinking throughout history (Klein, Peter). In quantum physics, one such moment was the proposal and discovery of the up, down, and strange quarks by physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig from 1964-1968 (Brown, John). However, it was not until 1977 that all six quarks were empirically observed (Brown, John). The case study demonstrates the young age of the discipline of quantum physics, and perhaps how it affects the presumption of axiomatic knowledge. Instead of moving on to new territories of knowledge, the theories being posed and discoveries being made are aimed towards replacing the currently assumed information. Thus, it makes the process of making knowledge axiomatic very difficult. As a result of the limited historical development of the discipline, new knowledge – regardless of quality – is being peer-reviewed and scrutinized for many years (Lagemaat, Richard Van de). Historical development is defined as events that have influenced and shaped an academic discipline (Cross, Charles). As of now, KP is only decreasing certainty because the new knowledge is supplanting current information. On the