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Rene Descartes Second Meditation Essay

457 Words2 Pages

To what extent, if at all, does Descartes second meditation provide an effective answer to the problems set out by the first meditation. Meditations (1641) by René Descartes (1596-1650) is an enormously influential book that, when first released, was also extremely controversial. The Catholic church saw Descartes as a terrible influence, so they placed Meditations on their list of prohibited books (Index librorum prohibitorus) in 1663. In this essay, we will endeavour to explore further into Meditations, the problems that lie within them and whether the second meditation provides an effective answer to problems out in the first meditation. The first meditation, 'What can be called into doubt', begins with the meditator reflecting upon every untrue thing that they have believed in their life, and whether their knowledge is actually just a collection of incorrect thoughts. To remedy this, they set out to completely rebuild their body of knowledge and only accept things that are certain to be true. They think that whilst the senses are not always the truest form of knowledge, they are correct often enough that they will take them to be true. The meditator concludes that everything is made up of parts, and these parts are undeniable truths, such as arithmetic or geometry, but subjects such as medicine or physics, whose roots come from more basic subjects, must be called in to question. …show more content…

The Meditator supposes that if God doesn’t exist, then the chance of our knowledge being false is increased, as there is no divine God regulating our imperfect senses. The Meditator then concludes that they shall begin to doubt everything, so as not to fall into the trap of false

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