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Rene Descartes Second Meditation Summary

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Rene Descartes Mediations, discusses a wide variety of topics such as the concept of God, Dualism, Deception through the senses and many more. In the Second Meditations, Descartes mentions the idea of sense perception and how we use it to understand the information we gain from our experiences. The passage selected will illustrate the idea behind sense perception and the mental processes we use to better understand it. In the passage mentioned above in the Second Meditation, Descartes concludes that sense perception is the root of thinking and other mental processes, such as understanding and doubting. The information we gain from experiencing the world around us originates from our senses. Our senses pick up and analyze the information which in turn allows us to better understand or doubt the information received. In conclusion, Descartes believes that sense perception is the root of thinking, doubting and understanding. Descartes, establishes his conclusion …show more content…

Descartes states that, many of the things that we imagine are not always real but our ability to imagine certain objects or scenarios are. This statement is confusing because if the objects we imagine are not real then our imagination would not be able to come up with these objects in the first place, which would result in our imagination being nonexistent. Our imagination draws on from the experiences we have around us to create new scenarios in our mind. Would that also bring about doubt in our ability to come up with certain scenarios in our mind? If it does then our mind is not as powerful as we thought, which makes it confusing since the mind being powerful enough too creates such images was one of the ideas throughout the

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In addition, due to dreams mainly consisting of objects and events, Descartes believed that there is no reason to doubt general beliefs as much as physical objects as 3+2 still equals 5, and a square will always have four sides (14). As a result of this, Descartes concluded that there is a degree of truth in objects we sense as those concepts must have come from somewhere,

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Descartes then attempts to define what he is. He previously believed that he had a spirit and body, by methods for which he was fed, moved, could sense, absorb space, had a distinct area and think. Each one of those methods are thrown into uncertainty except thinking. Since he can think, he should exist. He thinks about whether he no longer exists once his reasoning comes to a halt.

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Notre Dame ID: 902008117 In René Descartes ' Mediations on First Philosophy, Descartes abandons all previous notions or things that he holds to be true and attempts to reason through his beliefs to find the things that he can truly know without a doubt. In his first two meditations Descartes comes to the conclusion that all that he can truly know is that he exists, and that he is a thinking being. In his third meditation, Descartes concludes that he came to know his existence, and the fact that he is a thinking being, from his clear and distinct perception of these two facts. Descartes then argues that if his clear and distinct perception would turn out to be false, then his clear and distinct perception that he was a thinking being would not have been enough to make him certain of it (Blanchette).

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Meditation II Descartes begins to analyze himself since he stripped away all of his beliefs in “Meditation I”. By stripping everything away, Descartes wills himself to doubt everything, the physical world, his senses, his body, etc. This state of mind takes its toll and Descartes understands that he must challenge his doubts even though he is uncertain how to resolve them. Descartes world gets turned upside down as he begins to face his doubts, and returns to the beginning which is allows him to doubt everything again. He continuous this course of doubt until one he is able to find real truth, or he realizes that nothing is assured.

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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

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In Meditations, Descartes formulates the framework and guidelines of his First Philosophy or metaphysics, where methodic doubt is used to discern the nature of being and the world. Here he describes how we can derive a reliable method that can definitively determine what is

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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.

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In Meditation on First Philosophy, Descartes states that the realities he believed to be certain during his young years have been false. Which therefore causes him to embark on the journey to destroy all the opinions he had believed as the truth, and accept only those claims that are certain, firm, and permanent in the sciences. Deconstructing these pre-conceptions requires a process of methodological doubt where he withdraws from the senses; that “all that up to the present time [he has] accepted as most true and certain I have learned either from the senses or through the senses; but it has sometimes proved that these senses are deceptive” (Descartes, 1-7). Descartes believes that at any moment, he could be dreaming, or his sense deceived by God or an evil demon. He ascertains his own existence through a clear and distinct perception guaranteed by God.

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In the sixth meditation, Descartes postulates that there exists a fundamental difference in the natures of both mind and body which necessitates that they be considered as separate and distinct entities, rather than one stemming from the other or vice versa. This essay will endeavour to provide a critical objection to Descartes’ conception of the nature of mind and body and will then further commit to elucidating a suitably Cartesian-esque response to the same objection. (Descartes,1641) In the sixth meditation Descartes approaches this point of dualism between mind and matter, which would become a famous axiom in his body of philosophical work, in numerous ways. To wit Descartes postulates that he has clear and distinct perceptions of both

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Renes Descartes is a very well known arm chair philosopher who was not content with the idea that everything he was told had to be accepted. Descartes believed that everything he told was to be accepted, until he began to doubt things. In Meditation I, he doubts just about everything; including his trustworthiness of his senses. In Meditation II, Descartes finds a belief that he does not doubt that is that he is a thinking thing. Through Descartes Dream Argument in Meditation I he doubts his senses.

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The idea that if one can comprehend something in a dream, it therefore must exist in real life. The fact of this is that we know no positive transition between our dream state and the state of reality, and since dreams are so similar to reality, one can never tell when they are truly dreaming. Descartes demonstrates this idea with his own experiences, “How often, asleep at night, am I convinced of just such familiar events-that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire – when in fact I am lying undressed in bed! Yet at the moment my eyes are certainly awake” (Descartes 145). By using simple experiences like these Descartes is able to emphasize that when a person is dreaming, they do not usually know they are dreaming, and the sensations they experience are as real as if they were awake.

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Descartes presents an argument for how we know that we exist. It is difficult to question something we don’t know because we don’t know where to start. If there is an answer, there is a question, however if humans do not exist, there would be no one to question their existence. On the topic of existence, Descartes claims that he cannot be misinformed about his own existence, and that he is a thinking thing. Everything exists both through imagination and through reality.

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Descartes argues that one can exist because one has the capacity to think and therefore some part of him or her must exist for them to think. Through a series of meditations, Descartes wants to prove that one can possess true knowledge, a keystone with which one can build the rest of their beliefs on. As a result, Descartes describes the belief that one cannot rationally doubt their own existence as true knowledge and uses this as his keystone for further science. To build credibility for his argument, Descartes undergoes a series of meditations to prove that one cannot truly rationally doubt their existence. Anything in which Descartes finds a reason to rationally doubt, he treats as false until he discovers something that he cannot rationally

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Why can’t Descartes be certain about mathematical beliefs like the belief that 2+2=4? The truth that 2 + 2 = 4 does not rely on any sensible experience but is grasped entirely in our minds regardless of whether we are dreaming or awake.

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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.

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