Free Essays on Descartes

â€Å"Therefore, now that I have freed my mind from all cares, and I have secured for myself some leisurely and carefree time, I withdraw in solitude. I will in short, apply myself earnestly and openly to the general destruction of my former opinions.† (Rene Descartes, Meditation I) â€Å"Whatever I had admitted until now as most true I took in either from the senses or through the senses; however, I noticed that they sometimes deceived me. And it is a mark of prudence never to trust wholly in those things which have once deceived us.† (Rene Descartes, Meditation I) Descartes’ Mediations combined equal the embodiment of an effort to establish a foundation for knowledge. Each mediation serving almost as a mental/intellectual rung to achieve the heights of just how we as humans arrive at knowledge. A feat tackled by many a philosopher, Descartes’ method is one that begins with the practice of doubt, systematic doubt. Exemplified in the excerpts from the first meditation, Descartes’ cast himself and the reader into a role of the perplexed being. Perplexed, for all that was or is known may in fact be false if doubt is added into the equation. This addition, thus negating the experiences brought about by the senses. Descartes points out the fallibility of the senses, for they often deceive. The experience of the fallible senses is one that is a commonality, for many have thought an object was closer than it was, or could swear that they heard their name called in the distance. It is agreeable then, that Descartes is right, the senses do deceive, so how can we trust that which does deceive? Descartes says that we cannot, and we should apply doubt, in order to avoid the fallible. In this First Mediation, Descartes’ acknowledges the existence of God or a Supreme Being, as it is already present in his mind. With an ultimate being, God, the creator, as responsible for all things, Desc artes challenges the motives of God.... Free Essays on Descartes Free Essays on Descartes The classical way of thinking was that what we know first, and best is what we perceive with our senses. Rene Descartes was a revolutionary philosopher because he went against the classical Aristotelian way of thinking. Descartes stated, that what we know through the senses is more doubtful then what we perceive through our own reason. Therefore what we know first, we know with the greatest certitude, because he does not want to believe anything else that he has learned in the past, and wants to believe what he discovers for himself. He also said that anything that we can doubt, we should not take to be true because our senses can deceive us. Descartes goes against all other ways of thinking, and believes that what we know through reason and what we learn first is what we know with the most certainty. The order in which we know things, according to Descartes, all stems out from his base philosophy, which is â€Å"I think therefore I am.† â€Å"I think therefore I am† is the basis of Descartes’s philosophy. Because â€Å"I think therefore I am† is the first thing that Descartes bases his philosophy on, and it is what he knows the greatest. Since it is the first thing that he learned, it is also the thing that he knows with the greatest certainty. We know things according to Descartes by what we know first, and since we know â€Å"I think therefore I am† first that is where we begin to learn all things according to Descartes. â€Å"In order to think, it is necessary to exist.† By thinking Descartes comes to the conclusion that he does in fact exist because he thinks. If he thinks, he exists, therefore that is the order that we know things according to Descartes. We must first come to the realization that we exist because we think , and then we can begin to understand Descartes’s other steps. â€Å"†¦ That the things we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are all true.† This is another of Descartes’s most bas... Free Essays on Descartes In this essay, I propose to explain Descartes's system of methodic doubt. It will be necessary to look at his thoughts throughout his work in â€Å"The meditations†. I will also show how Descartes subjected to doubt, all that could be possibly doubted, and arrived at the indubitable proposition: Cogito ergo sum, or I think, therefore I am. I will also explain how Descartes proceeded from this basis to prove the existence of God. Finally, I will conclude with how these two propositions together, for Descartes, established the certainty of human knowledge. Descartes devised his system of methodic doubt in order to discover an indubitable belief, which he could use as a certain, and secure foundation as the basis for knowledge. For Descartes it was necessary to look inside himself at all the beliefs he once held as true, and subject them to the strongest of doubts. For the purpose of freeing himself from all preconceived opinions, he allowed himself to believe that all his past beliefs were false and imaginary, as he states in the first meditation: " So, for the purpose of rejecting all my opinions, it will be enough if I find in each of them at least some reason for doubt." (Cottingham 1984, p12). This provided Descartes with the easiest path by which to lead the mind away from the senses. In considering how far doubt can be extended, he begins by questioning his sense perception. Descartes realises that everything that he has up till now accepted as true has been acquired either from the senses or through the senses. However there have been times when he has found that his senses can deceive, such as when objects may appear differently from various points of view, and that therefore it is highly probable that other things which appear certain through the senses may in reality be illusions. On further reflection, Descartes ponders the proposition of being asleep or awake. He wonders if this is something that cannot be doubted. Ho... Free Essays on Descartes Upon cursory examination, one might assume that Rene Descartes is a â€Å"non-believer† in the existence of a heavenly being, a God that presides over humans and gives us faith. However, this is simply not the case – Descartes is simply trying to destroy all of the uncertainties that have come about by the attempted scientific explanations of such a supreme being. For Rene Descartes and all of the other believers in the world, the existence of God provides a convenient answer to unexplained questions, while never providing answers to the questions about God himself. This is evidenced a great deal in the circular argument made by Descartes in the Meditations on First Philosophy. What follows is a brief account of the third and fifth meditations, which provide Descartes’ response to the masked question, â€Å"What is God?† Can one perceive or confirm the existence of an idea that is external to him, an idea such as God? In order to determine the answer we mu st start by understanding the ways in which we can conclude an objects’ existence. Descartes explains three ways in which a person might come to such a conclusion – the first, through nature; the second, through feeling a value that is independent of the will of the object; and the third, the objective reality of an idea, or the â€Å"cause and effect profile.† The third point is the one that we will primarily spend our time with. Descartes drills us with the idea that an object will have an effect when it stems from a legitimate cause, or an initial idea that precedes with equal or superior properties in one’s intellect. In other words, the mind generates thoughts and ideas about a physical form, and develops a reality for this form, through previous schema and beliefs. â€Å"And although an idea may give rise to another idea, this regress cannot, nevertheless, be infinite; we must in the end reach a first idea, the cause of which is, as it were, the ar chetype in which all the rea... Free Essays on Descartes â€Å"Therefore, now that I have freed my mind from all cares, and I have secured for myself some leisurely and carefree time, I withdraw in solitude. I will in short, apply myself earnestly and openly to the general destruction of my former opinions.† (Rene Descartes, Meditation I) â€Å"Whatever I had admitted until now as most true I took in either from the senses or through the senses; however, I noticed that they sometimes deceived me. And it is a mark of prudence never to trust wholly in those things which have once deceived us.† (Rene Descartes, Meditation I) Descartes’ Mediations combined equal the embodiment of an effort to establish a foundation for knowledge. Each mediation serving almost as a mental/intellectual rung to achieve the heights of just how we as humans arrive at knowledge. A feat tackled by many a philosopher, Descartes’ method is one that begins with the practice of doubt, systematic doubt. Exemplified in the excerpts from the first meditation, Descartes’ cast himself and the reader into a role of the perplexed being. Perplexed, for all that was or is known may in fact be false if doubt is added into the equation. This addition, thus negating the experiences brought about by the senses. Descartes points out the fallibility of the senses, for they often deceive. The experience of the fallible senses is one that is a commonality, for many have thought an object was closer than it was, or could swear that they heard their name called in the distance. It is agreeable then, that Descartes is right, the senses do deceive, so how can we trust that which does deceive? Descartes says that we cannot, and we should apply doubt, in order to avoid the fallible. In this First Mediation, Descartes’ acknowledges the existence of God or a Supreme Being, as it is already present in his mind. With an ultimate being, God, the creator, as responsible for all things, Desc artes challenges the motives of God.... Free Essays on Descartes Since Descartes’ brain-in-a-vat analogy, people have pondered whether they really exist. Even in today’s modern times, movies like ‘The Matrix’ exemplify the modern paradigm of Descartes’ example. So can we prove we exist? In this paper, I hope to show that we can, but not the context we exist within. I will use the example of ‘The Matrix’ to not only show that a theoretical Matrix could deceive us, but also a more plausible and finite Matrix. Descartes’ ‘cognito ergo sum’ (‘I think therefore I am’) is a perfectly valid method of proving we exist. The fact that we are thinking about our existence proves we exist! Unfortunately, this is as far as Descartes and myself agree - he uses this argument to corroborate the idea that the mind can exist without the body. Yet how can a non-physical entity think? I firmly believe that the act of thinking is a physical process - sensory information (or other events) triggers neurons to fire within the brain that in turn excites various other areas and causes chemical reactions that consequentially affects what we think and feel. Therefore, an entity that does not physically exist cannot think. Dualism complicates matters by creating a double meaning for ‘am’ (and any other word related to the person or being). There is the physical meaning of ‘am’, existing within the physical world. Then there is the more abstract meaning of ‘am’ - one’s personality, one’s being and (dare I say it) one’s soul. Therefore, I may be taking Descartes’ meaning of ‘am’ out of context by using it as a combination of both the physical and the mental (since the mental is physical). The problem that surfaces here is the degree of physicality that has to be associated with ‘being’ (or am-ness). How much of our physical body must be intact to consider us being. Our current Matrix example is safe, since the body is kept intact. Yet, the brain-in-a-vat example is different... Free Essays on Descartes â€Å"I am something real and really existing, but what thing am I? I have already given the answer: a thing which thinks.† Rene Descartes was a modern European thinker. Throughout his meditations he constantly implies that we are â€Å"things that think†. Our bodies, these things, are just a jumbled mess of flesh, blood and bone. It is thinking that creates the person. Thinking is what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. In â€Å"Meditations on First Philosophy†, Descartes says â€Å"I am something real and really existing, but what thing am I? I have already given the answer: a thing which thinks† (pg. 26). This passage explains that the best way to learn is by questioning our very existence. I agree with this belief wholeheartedly. It is up to us to use our senses and minds to develop and explore our beliefs on life. Life would be quite boring if we believed everything we heard. Ineffability, or an individual experience which makes it incapable of being imparted, is when one feels most alive and what sets us apart from others. Skepticism is described as doubting everything and is a frequently used method by Descartes. He doubts the fact that he is really living; maybe what he is doing at this moment is dreaming. â€Å"As if I did not remember other occasions when I have been tricked exactly similar thoughts while asleep! As I think about this more carefully, I see plainly that there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep† (pg.19). This quote is found in Descartes first meditation where he doubts many physical things. He is not saying that nothing exists. He is simply saying that there is no way to know; no proof they do exist. I agree very much with this declaration that Descartes made. He knows that there is no proof that the world doesn’t exist and he states that. I certainty agree that it is not certain that the world we are living in is act... Free Essays on Descartes DESCARTES’ IDEA OF A PERFECT BEING In his meditations, Descartes points out that there are three types of ideas; they can be innate, adventitious, caused by things outside of one’s self, and others that can be invented by us, such as ideas of mermaids or unicorns. After he concludes that God must necessarily exist, which will be discussed in more detail later on in this paper, he closes in to the fact that his idea of the Perfect Being cannot be adventitious, coming from without, nor can it be invented by him. Thus, this idea must be innate since he has a clear and distinct perception of God’s existence, and that Descartes must have been created by God with such an idea already in him. The idea of a Perfect Being in Descartes’ mind consists of an infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, supremely intelligent as well as a powerful substance, which created him and everything else. Thus he realizes that the idea of God must have far more objective reality than he has formal reality because God is an infinite substance where as he himself is only a finite substance. Having explained the idea of Descartes’ perfect being lets go into more detail on the process he uses to prove that such being actually exists. Descartes’ proof of the existence of God occurs in the Third Meditation. He builds his entire argument upon his proof in the previous meditation that in order for him to think, he must exist. From this single observation, Descartes notices that the idea of his existence is very clear and distinct in his mind; based upon this clarity and the fact that he has just determined his own existence, he deduces a rule such that the things that he sees as very clear and very distinct are all true. Descartes starts his proof by dividing â€Å"thought† into four categories; ideas (concepts), volitions (choices), emotions (desires), and judgments (beliefs). He then breaks down these categories to discover which types of tho... Free Essays on Descartes In this essay, I propose to explain Descartes's system of methodic doubt. It will be necessary to look at his thoughts throughout his work in â€Å"The meditations†. I will also show how Descartes subjected to doubt, all that could be possibly doubted, and arrived at the indubitable proposition: Cogito ergo sum, or I think, therefore I am. I will also explain how Descartes proceeded from this basis to prove the existence of God. Finally, I will conclude with how these two propositions together, for Descartes, established the certainty of human knowledge. Descartes devised his system of methodic doubt in order to discover an indubitable belief, which he could use as a certain, and secure foundation as the basis for knowledge. For Descartes it was necessary to look inside himself at all the beliefs he once held as true, and subject them to the strongest of doubts. For the purpose of freeing himself from all preconceived opinions, he allowed himself to believe that all his past beliefs were false and imaginary, as he states in the first meditation: " So, for the purpose of rejecting all my opinions, it will be enough if I find in each of them at least some reason for doubt." (Cottingham 1984, p12). This provided Descartes with the easiest path by which to lead the mind away from the senses. In considering how far doubt can be extended, he begins by questioning his sense perception. Descartes realises that everything that he has up till now accepted as true has been acquired either from the senses or through the senses. However there have been times when he has found that his senses can deceive, such as when objects may appear differently from various points of view, and that therefore it is highly probable that other things which appear certain through the senses may in reality be illusions. On further reflection, Descartes ponders the proposition of being asleep or awake. He wonders if this is something that cannot be doubted. Ho... Free Essays on Descartes The classical way of thinking was that what we know first, and best is what we perceive with our senses. Rene Descartes was a revolutionary philosopher because he went against the classical Aristotelian way of thinking. Descartes stated, that what we know through the senses is more doubtful then what we perceive through our own reason. Therefore what we know first, we know with the greatest certitude, because he does not want to believe anything else that he has learned in the past, and wants to believe what he discovers for himself. He also said that anything that we can doubt, we should not take to be true because our senses can deceive us. Descartes goes against all other ways of thinking, and believes that what we know through reason and what we learn first is what we know with the most certainty. The order in which we know things, according to Descartes, all stems out from his base philosophy, which is â€Å"I think therefore I am.† â€Å"I think therefore I am† is the basis of Descartes’s philosophy. Because â€Å"I think therefore I am† is the first thing that Descartes bases his philosophy on, and it is what he knows the greatest. Since it is the first thing that he learned, it is also the thing that he knows with the greatest certainty. We know things according to Descartes by what we know first, and since we know â€Å"I think therefore I am† first that is where we begin to learn all things according to Descartes. â€Å"In order to think, it is necessary to exist.† By thinking Descartes comes to the conclusion that he does in fact exist because he thinks. If he thinks, he exists, therefore that is the order that we know things according to Descartes. We must first come to the realization that we exist because we think , and then we can begin to understand Descartes’s other steps. â€Å"†¦ That the things we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are all true.† This is another of Descartes’s most bas... Free Essays on Descartes I am going to discuss Descartes’ first and second Meditations concerning doubt. I will first summarize what Descartes was trying to say and prove, and explain why he was unsuccessful in his search for a foundation in which he could build knowledge from. In Descartes first meditation he discusses that he has come to the conclusion that many of his beliefs and opinions he had as a child are doubtful. Descartes decides that in order to find out the â€Å"truths† he must disprove his current â€Å"knowledge.† He goes about this by a radical system of doubt and says that he must â€Å"attack those principles which supported everything I once believed (144).† His method of doubt allows him to eliminate anything and everything that has even the smallest possibility of not being factual. Descartes does not necessarily doubt everything that he brings up. In Descartes’ first meditation, he tries to disprove all of his fundamental beliefs. First, he doubts that he can trust his senses because they can be fooled. An example of this is the refraction that happens when a pencil is placed in water; it looks broken, even though it really is not. Descartes then states that there are no definitive signs for him to tell weather he is awake or asleep. And since he cannot trust his senses, he concludes that there is no way to determine whether he is awake or asleep. He does say that there are some things that remain consistent when he is awake and asleep; namely, math. 2 + 2 still = 4 in a dream, and a square will still have four sides whether you are asleep or awake. His point is that even though there a things that remain constant in a dream, they are so vivid sometimes that you cannot tell if you are really conscious. To disprove these beliefs Descartes abandons the idea of a supremely good God like he has believed in all his life and brings up the argument that God is an omnipotent, omniscient, evil genius whose entire purpose is to dec... Free Essays on Descartes DESCARTES (1596-1650) Descartes was a French mathematician and philosopher. It was Descartes who formulated the adage, Cogito ergo sum, "I think therefore I exist." Also, something that really sticks with me is his reasoning in lui of Copernican theory- Descartes also said that knowledge cannot be based on perception (our senses, etc) alone. Descartes was a product of the church and his philosophy reflected the times in which he lived. Descartes was a dualist believing a man was of two natures, a spiritual nature and a temporal nature. Now whether this was a belief held deeply, might be a matter of some question. What is clear is that he would have professed his beliefs, such, that, they were in keeping with the doctrine of the time, as spread by the all powerful church. As a dualist, Descartes, would have accepted that there exists a priori truth (truths not derived from experience; truths such as the existence of God). And, while Descartes accepted some ideas were developed from experience, he was firm in his belief that certain ideas were innate. By pure deduction Descartes evolved for himself entire universes that neither he, nor anyone else, could perceive by the use of their natural senses. All that was necessary, for Descartes, was intense self examination and intense reason, and, through this process, all would b e revealed. Descartes, it would seem, in his philosophical work, continued along the same lines of the church philosophers: the deductive approach, accepting notions which have no basis in reality, and then to proceed to build on those. Something the church was famous for (Catholics still are!). No one can trust the result of such a process: a conclusion can never be more trustworthy than the premises on which it is built. For one to profess a belief in such a process in such a philosophy is to profess one's ignorance of the fundamental universal principles, or natural laws, which have guided man along ... Free Essays on Descartes In the â€Å"Mediations of First Philosophy† Descartes tries to prove the existence of God in the third meditation. He does this by coming up with several premises that eventually add up to a solid argument. First, I will explain why Descartes ask the question, does god exist? And why does Descartes think he needs such and argument at this point in the text. Secondly, I will explain, in detail, the arguments that Descartes makes and how he comes to the conclusion that God does exist. Next, I will debate some of Descartes premises that make his argument an unsound one, including circular reasoning. Finally, I will see if his unsound argument has diminished and undermined his principal goals and the incorrigible foundation of knowledge. In earlier meditations Descartes proved that he existed through the Cogito argument. Descartes must now move on to examine and explore questions about the world around him, but instead of doing this he first stop to examine the question of whether or not God exists. Descartes wants to know that he was created by an all knowing, perfect creator that is good and wants to make sure that he was not created by an evil spirit or demon. If Descartes can prove that he was created by a perfect all knowing creator then his ideas must carry some semblance of truth, because God is not a deceiver and he must of placed these ideas in Descartes. Descartes has good reasons for searching for the answer to the question of God’s existence, now he has to come up with a good sound argument to prove it. Throughout the â€Å"Meditations on First Philosophy† Descartes gives a couple of major arguments about the existences of god, he gives one argument in the third meditation and on in the fifth meditation. The argument in meditation three and the one we will focus on is known as the â€Å"Trademark Argument†. This argument comes from the fact claimed by Descartes that inside of everyone is a supreme being, which is place... Free Essays on Descartes [All page references and quotations from the Meditations are taken from the 1995 Everyman edition] In the Meditations, Descartes embarks upon what Bernard Williams has called the project of 'Pure Enquiry' to discover certain, indubitable foundations for knowledge. By subjecting everything to doubt Descartes hoped to discover whatever was immune to it. In order to best understand how and why Descartes builds his epistemological system up from his foundations in the way that he does, it is helpful to gain an understanding of the intellectual background of the 17th century that provided the motivation for his work. We can discern three distinct influences on Descartes, three conflicting world-views that fought for prominence in his day. The first was what remained of the mediaeval scholastic philosophy, largely based on Aristotelian science and Christian theology. Descartes had been taught according to this outlook during his time at the Jesuit college La Flech_ and it had an important influence on his work, as we shall see later. The second was the scepticism that had made a sudden impact on the intellectual world, mainly as a reaction to the scholastic outlook. This scepticism was strongly influenced by the work of the Pyrrhonians as handed down from antiquity by Sextus Empiricus, which claimed that, as there is never a reason to believe p that is better than a reason not to believe p, we should forget about trying to discover the nature of reality and live by appearance alone. This attitude was best exemplified in the work of Michel de Montaigne, who mockingly dismissed the attempts of theologians and scientists to understand the nature of God and the universe respectively. Descartes felt the force of sceptical arguments and, while not being sceptically disposed himself, came to believe that scepticism towards knowledge was the best way to discover what is certain: by ... Free Essays on Descartes In Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene’ Descartes discusses the existence of external objects, primarily in the First Meditation. Descartes doubts the existence of external objects based upon the idea that an ‘evil genius’ exists instead of an ideally good God. This ‘evil genius’ strives at deceiving Descartes. Descartes now assumes that all external objects- â€Å"the heavens, the air, the earth, colors, shapes, sounds†- are nothing more than hoaxes produced by the ‘evil genius’ and therefore do not exist. At the end of the First Meditation, thinking and perception remains certain because your own thinking and perception is the only thing you can believe because it exists in your mind and not in the external world, which can be altered by things such as the ‘evil genius’. In discussing the existence of external objects, Descartes must also include the existence of God. The existence of God is based upon the ‘ontological argument’. The ontological argument is that God is a â€Å"being than which none greater can be thought†. The meaning of the argument is that the concept of God is the greatest being who can be thought, and therefore He must exist. The counter argument is an argument against the ontological argument. It discusses that existence is an essential property and part of the definition of a thing, that is God. The counter argument says that existence is not a property and cannot be part of a definition. Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God and his own self. Descartes argues that God exists as the necessary thing that first caused all other causes in the world, but Descartes has not yet proved that there is a world. Descartes argues that we can only think of this idea of God because a real God exists whom makes it possible for us to have this idea of God himself. Descartes also argues that without God we would not exist because God causes things in this world to exist, that is...