ipl-logo

René Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

628 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: 5. what is descartes’ method of doubt and how it works

In Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes’ argues that God’s perfect existence can be proven through humankind’s imperfection. Descartes asserts that whenever he is made aware of his own existent imperfections, such as his doubtfulness and dependency, he comes to the conclusion that a perfect being, a God, exists (Mediation Four, 53, pg.81). According to Descartes, “this conclusion is so obvious that I am confident that the human mind can know nothing more evident or more certain (Meditation Four, 53, pg.81).” While Descartes firmly maintains the idea that doubt can cast a shadow over the truth, thus making it difficult to find, he also argues that the existence of human doubt, as well as deception and error, could lead someone towards the truth. Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy is ultimately a treatise where the existence of doubt …show more content…

These human opinions, which, he states, “I had allowed myself to be persuaded in my youth without ever having examined whether they were true (Discourse on Method, Part Two, 14, pg.8),” obstructed his ability to willingly and decisively distinguish between incontrovertible truth and utter falsities. According to Descartes, “no other things [intellect and free will] in me are so perfect or so great but that I understand that they can still be more perfect or greater (Meditation Four, 57, pg.83).” To obstruct the use of intellect and free will, which is infinite in God, to Descartes is to obstruct the use of God’s divine gifts to humankind. Descartes felt that he was so incapacitated by doubt that he had “to raze everything to the ground and begin again from the original foundations (Meditation One, 18, pg.59).” He found that in order to truly rise to his full potential, he had to completely demolish the opinions that abused his

Show More
Related
1656 Words | 7 Pages

Juliet Arowosaye UCOR 132: Basic Philosophical Questions Meditations on First Philosophy; Descartes’ Doubts and Resolutions In Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes, the meditator presents the possibility that everything he, and all humans, have known and seen could be false. He struggles to find any reason to not doubt that our senses have just been deceiving us our whole lives. Thus, he reaches the conclusion that everything we have seen and known, as well as our existence, must be called into doubt. Descartes attempts to unravel the meditator’s mentality by presenting ways in which we are possibly being deceived.

Read More
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
1391 Words | 6 Pages

Rene Descartes famously argues, in First Meditations, the first section of his larger work, Meditations on First Philosophy, that it is unwise to trust something that deceives you, even once. Descartes continues by claiming that because the senses are known to deceive, be it through optical illusions or through dreams, it is imprudent to trust one’s senses. G.E. Moore responds to Descartes’ radical argument in his academic essay, Proof of an External World. Moore asserts, “I can prove now, for instance, that two human hands exist (24).” He executes this claim in an astonishingly simple manner.

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
1532 Words | 7 Pages

Discourse on the method, by Desecrate is a famous philosophical book, which focuses on doubting, certainty and existence. In his book, Desecrate constantly shifts from doubting to certainty. Although Descartes believes that everything can be doubted he finds ways to became certain of his existence mainly through quote “Cogito, ergo sum”, which means, “I think, therefore I exist”. Despite this phrase is one of the best in the world, and many people rushed to Descartes says, I see that it doesn’t have much significance as people think, he did not come up with any thing new. We have different kind of people, which are divided into religious, atheists and lost people.

Read More
172 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
521 Words | 3 Pages

In Meditations II, Descartes expresses doubt through a form of meditation. Descartes claims to have accepted many false opinions over time. However, to reject all previous opinions, he states that he needs to “rebuild from the foundation.” In the first section (paragraphs 3-4), Descartes questions our senses by inferring that they often deceive and mislead.

Read More
1500 Words | 6 Pages

He knows himself as “subject to an infinitude of errors” (20, Descartes) but then begins to question how it is possible that he makes errors after being the product of a non-deceiving God. After deliberating this thought, Descartes comes to the realization that the errors he makes are due to a lack of something such as intellect that is a result of his lack of perfection and is not a result of something God has attributed to him. With this goes along with the idea that everything God creates, because he is infinite, is perfect and because Descartes is finite there will always be room for error. However, a main attribute God has given him that is the closest attribute of resemblance to God is that of free will. It is the misuse of this free will that leads to error due to the fact that Descartes does not fully understand it; therefore free will “easily falls into error and sin and chooses the evil for the good or the false for the true” (21, Descartes).

Read More
1642 Words | 7 Pages

Descartes is concerned with the nature of human free will and understanding this in the context of his understanding of God. In his Meditations, Descartes concludes that God could never trick or deceive him, but he also understands that human beings are often prone to error. This creates something of a conundrum for Descartes that he seeks to explain in his Fourth Meditation. Namely, how can one reconcile the idea of human error with the concepts of the perfections of God? “If everything that is in me I got from God, and he gave me no faculty for making mistakes, it seems I am incapable of ever erring.”

Read More
558 Words | 3 Pages

He also stated that “For since I know that my own nature is very weak and limited, whereas the nature of God is immense, incomprehensible and infinite, I also know without more ado that he is capable of countless things whose causes are beyond my knowledge”. Descartes believed that it is his mind that prevents him from understanding why God gave him the chance to create human error. The model of descartes human error problem does not succeed because nothing can be seen or perceived without the mind, and the mind is everything for us at the moment. Altough the physical body and the mind are different both are controlled by the mind. This means that even thought descartes can not see God he still believe in him, and anything that have anything evil like actions who knows it did not come from God.

Read More
1000 Words | 4 Pages

Justified, true belief knowledge is only real if there is no conceivable doubt, but nothing can truly be inconceivable fact. In “Mediation I: What can be Called into Doubt”, Descartes tries to find solutions to this, but he only raises more questions about the world. Skepticism arises to challenge the idea of a perfect knowledge and to question the human mind and the world. Descartes reflects on the countless falsehoods he believed that became his knowledge about the world and wipes everything out of his mind to begin anew. Descartes starts with the foundations of knowledge, deciding only to accept opinions as truths when there isn't any conceivable doubt in his 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
722 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1036 Words | 5 Pages

Rene Descartes’ view on the mind-body problem is one that is much debated even today, nearly four centuries since his demise. To discuss the mind-body problem, we must first establish the definitions of mind and body, and how Descartes came upon these definitions. Following that, we can then discuss the validity of his views, and some of the criticisms his views have received. To explain how Descartes arrived at his views of the mind and body, we must look into his process of systematic doubt. The first step was to doubt everything that could be doubted: his senses, his prior knowledge (a priori), and his knowledge of the world (a posteriori).

Read More
1116 Words | 5 Pages

Descartes Methodological Doubt and Meditations Methodological doubt is an approach in philosophy that employs distrust and doubt to all the truths and beliefs of an individual to determine what beliefs he or she is certain are true. It was popularized by Rene Descartes who made it a characteristic method of philosophy where a philosopher subjects all the knowledge they have with the sole purpose of scrutinizing and differentiating the true claims from the false claims. Methodological doubt establishes certainty by analytically and tentatively doubting all the knowledge that one knows to set aside dubitable knowledge from the indubitable knowledge that an individual possesses. According to Descartes, who was a rationalist, his first meditation

Read More

More about René Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

Related Topics

Open Document