The Influence Of Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

Does rationalism, as an epistemological doctrine, concerning the origin and nature of ideas lead to dualism as a metaphysical doctrine? In Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy" the purpose is to find the foundation at which to come to certainty. Certainty, in this sense, is in an epistemological context beucase he tries to affirm knowing, which inevitably involves understanding knowledge. To come to certainty, Descartes builds an understanding from the ground up; as a result all things that are doubtable are set aside until he can be certain about them. He focuses the efforts on the nature of mind and its ideas (or contents), laying this as a foundation for his general world view. The world view is that the whole of reality is comprised

If that was the case then, Descartes ponders whether it means that there cannot be any idea where the meditator's content cannot be the cause. To put simply can there the any content, world content, that can be apart from himself or it is just that all content is created by the meditator. If it were the case that all content are his own then it would means that conceptions of the universe could not attain certainty of truth. Descartes asserts that there can be content of the world that is derived from the concept of self. The reason for this belief lies in the fact that the very existence of the world is not forced upon us by the idea of the world. The existence of the world is not the result of the "force of [his] perception" (p. 114). So he says that the world may be a projection of the self.

The idea of self, cannot exist without god, to Descartes. The reason behind this is that god is represented as an infinite being, and because god is seen this way, Descartes has a reliable measure to gauge the finite nature of his existence, as a relative measure. For example, he knows that god exists, and he knows that god has the maximal properties an idealized self would contain: omnipotent, omniscience, and all good. What this leads to, as a relative measure, is that in comparison, the self is limited to the

This is because in earlier in the Meditations Descartes shows that god cannot be a deceiver. What this means is that god is not an entity that deceives the self. By deceiving the self, it is implied early on, god is separate from the self. Even if god could make 2+2=5, god could not deceive himself. God cannot be deceived by himself because as an infinite being he is incapable of lying to himself. Because, in the words of Descartes, an all-powerful infinite entity such as god could not have an imperfection such as deceit. Showing that god cannot deceive himself and thusly he does not deceive the self. What this shows is the God separates us from