ipl-logo

Ucor 132 Basic Philosophical Questions

1656 Words7 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. In what follows, I will argue that the meditator has adequate reasons to doubt everything he has come to experience …show more content…

He argues that "[He] now seems to be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever [he] perceives very clearly and distinctly is true" (Descartes 35). The reason, he explains, that his clear and distinct perceptions are so reliable is because of God’s existence; particularly, because of God’s existence as a beneficent God. According to Descartes, God simply cannot be a deceiver; God is perfect. Perfection can only include positive traits such as beneficence, unconditional love, justice, and wisdom. Therefore, God cannot, and would never deceive us. He then says that without his knowledge of God's existence, none of his knowledge could be so clear and distinct. It is easy for one to be puzzled by how poorly this resolution was articulated; how is that Descartes' proof of the reliability of clear and distinct perceptions is because of the existence of a [non-deceiving] God, yet his proof of God’s existence [as a non-deceiver] is because of the reliability of his clear and distinct perceptions? This apparent circular reasoning, formally known as the Cartesian Circle, makes his argument appear weak and void. Both parts of the Cartesian circle make sense, but not together. It would have strengthened Descartes’ argument to better phrase this part of the

Show More
Related

How Did Descartes Confirm God's Existence

593 Words | 3 Pages

This is one of the reasons why the Meditator was successful at proving God’s existence, considering that the Meditator would forge the pillars by his intellectual examination, until the Meditator would attain a clear and distinct idea of God. Moreover, the Meditator concludes that God does exist, because the idea of a perfect God was already inside the Meditator’s mind, which confirmed the concept of a perfect God as an innate idea that was left by God, so that the Meditator may remember the idea that was left behind. That is why I believe that Descartes succeeded in proving that God exists, taking into consideration that Descartes would not stray of the path that was based on pure logic, which is no easy task for any human being. Not only that, Descartes could not rely on the senses, because the senses do not provide enough information of the topic that he was discussing about, and the imagination would not have a correlation of the idea itself. Therefore, one could obtain numerous answers from the material world and the imagination, however, the credibility of both sources do not match the mind, which endeavors to find the truth of things by one’s intellectual

Read More

How Does Descartes Deceptive God Exist

303 Words | 2 Pages

Descartes starts The Meditations by regarding all knowledge as deception imposed by a deceptive God. He does this in an effort to rid himself of any possible falsehood, so that he can attain what he can rebuild his reality with only what is deemed to be certain. Eventually he disregards the notion of a deceptive God, and is able to regain with confidence many of his previous convictions. The first step he takes in his search for truth is to identify whether or not he exists. After some analysis he concludes that he must exist, because he is able to question his existence.

Read More

René Descartes Meditations Of The First Philosophy

1752 Words | 8 Pages

René Descartes was a French Philosopher who challenged the popular explanations of the Scholastic-Aristotelian philosophers’ reasons for their existence, earning himself the name; the Father of Modern Philosophy. His most popular quote, “I think, therefore I am,” was just the beginning of his challenge. Through long, tedious thought processes that drove many mad, he was able to discount the reasoning of existence solely based on the presence of the senses. The modern philosophical world has based a large number of theories of existences on the Meditations of the First Philosophy, which is Descartes’s treatise. The first and second meditation of this dissertation, introduce the beginning of his arguments for his existence and state other arguments, which justify his reasoning.

Read More

Did Rene Descartes God Exist

924 Words | 4 Pages

René Descartes, a famed mathematician and philosopher, enacted a thought project where he applied radical doubt to everything in existence, including himself. He wrote a treatise about the experience, called “Meditations on First Philosophy”, of which there are six parts. After first establishing his own existence as a “thinking thing,” Descartes wonders about the existence of God (153). Descartes then follows to prove, through a series of arguments, that God exists, and that the existence of God merits the existence of a material world.

Read More

Rene Descartes Argument In Meditation

1111 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

René Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

897 Words | 4 Pages

Due to this, Descartes argues that the only thing that is truly immune to doubt is the existence of oneself. Though this argument is appealing, this idea of doubt and what is true requires a more in depth analysis. Before addressing any objections to his central claim, it must

Read More

Rene Descartes 'Meditations'

1496 Words | 6 Pages

In the First Meditation he breaks down anything that can be

Read More

What Was Descartes Method Of Doubt?

1532 Words | 7 Pages

What is Descartes’ method of doubt? Can we use it to respond to the sceptic? In this essay I argue that Descartes failed, in the Meditations on first philosophy (Clarke, 1998) to demonstrate the rule of 'clear and distinct perception' for the reason that the argument supporting this assertion is fallacious. Before discussing this specific argument, I will describe Descartes’ project, detailing what the method of doubt is and showing how it is a response to the sceptic.

Read More

Descartes Meditation Argument

1004 Words | 5 Pages

Descartes' Meditation I is based on finding out if anything in this world is absolutely certain. That our own bodies and hands are actually our hands and bodies. That when we step outside and walk to our car, we are actually seeing our car. While doing this, he also wanted a foundation of knowledge that he would be able to build upon. The method he chooses to go with was to doubt everything that he knows, society knows, and in general everything, and look at what remains.

Read More

Rene Descartes Second Meditation Essay

457 Words | 2 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.

Read More

Descartes Proof Of God Essay

1031 Words | 5 Pages

5049374 Word Count: 1,026 To begin the proof of Gods existence in meditation III Descartes briefly discusses what he is certain about and what it is that he is still left doubting. The only thing that he is certain about is “I exist as a thinking thing” ( I being Descartes) and that he is left with doubt with concern to his senses— henceforth he is left with doubt of the nature of God, being a deceiver or not, since God could be the cause of deception. Thus, he must dig deeper into Gods being to be able to determine anything else that he can hold certain as truth. Before determining whether or not God is a deceiver or not, Descartes groups his thoughts so that the truth or falsity of the thoughts can be determined categorically. First, he has ideas, which are “images” of things such as man, sky or god (pp.48).

Read More

Research Paper On Rene Descartes

1029 Words | 5 Pages

Rene Descartes, a French philosopher born in 1596, was often considered “the father of modern philosophy.” Through “The Meditations”, Descartes takes us on a journey to discover the basis of all our knowledge claims by questioning what is knowledge, where it originated from, and how we can justify it. In his writing, Descartes doubts the existence of an external world by discussing several sources which caused him to develop this radical skepticism. With total neglect of all knowledge and existence, he creates his own theory of knowledge by questioning the nature of it, its extent, as well as its validity. Descartes starts on the basis that scientific knowledge to Descartes comes from the mind and not from our senses.

Read More

The Influence Of Rene Descarte's Meditation On First Philosophy

894 Words | 4 Pages

A perfect God would not fool me or allow me to be fooled vi. I can be sure the external world is real Descartes evidently judges that God’s existence is decisive for acquiring certainty for clear and distinct ideas. It is extremely evident that God played an imperative role in Descartes

Read More

Criticisms Of Theistic Argumentative Essay

903 Words | 4 Pages

“The existence of God cannot be proven without appealing to some principle that is truly independent of experience. But to import an a priori principle is to open the argument to two criticisms. First, no a priori based argument is valid; there are no rationally inescapable arguments about reality, as was just shown. Second, even if one combines a posteriori experience and some a priori based principle, there is still the problem of the justification of that principle.”

Read More

Rene Descartes Skepticism

1306 Words | 6 Pages

The doubter is known as the evil deceiver, because it creates the complex explanations which can’t be verified, makes the truly vulnerable and breakable. However, in order to have a doubt, an individual is thinking or doubting an idea it means, they exist. As he mentioned in one of this mediations, I think, therefore, I am.” Descartes believes, that human mind is the foundation where all the ideas and the perceptions are being tested, either the truth is absolute, possible or impossible.

Read More

More about Ucor 132 Basic Philosophical Questions

Related Topics

Open Document