1st Essay Assignment: Skepticism and the Self
One of the re occurring problems in philosophy revolve around whether or not a claim can be proven true. This is known as skepticism or, in simpler terms, casting doubt. One very famous philosopher, Rene Descartes, whose major work revolved around skepticism and casting doubt. He is the one who takes the question of whether one can easily prove their existence or not and analyzes it. Through the reading of his three meditations on first philosophy, it is easy to see how many of his thoughts raise the skeptic’s eyebrow in rebuttal. Especially, in his second mediation, by trying to prove his own existence, Descartes causes one of the biggest controversies in his career. Through the relationship between
…show more content…
This allows for the reader to see that the “I exist” claim, is very special, Descartes explains, because it is one of the only propositions of knowledge that cannot be doubted. Now in his second mediation, completely disregards the three main beliefs of his first meditation to be false, he cannot help but acknowledge the fact that one belief remains true. That belief being the claim of “I exist”. It is impossible to doubt your own existence because in order for you to cast doubt on something you need to exist for that to happen. If you don’t exist what would you actually be doubting. To say you doubt your own existence, only things that exist can make doubts. If one is able to think, then self must be present in order for that to happen. Descartes goes through a lot of analysis to prove this to be true, he says “Is it then the case that I too do not exist? ... He will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I shall think that I am something. Thus, after everything has been most carefully weighed, it must finally be established that this pronouncement "I am, I exist" [ego sum, ego existo] is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind." (Meditation II). Even the working of an evil demon to mislead him would provide suffice enough that he existed. Descartes comes to the conclusion that the thing that allows for him …show more content…
In sum, foundationalism is thinking that all knowledge derive from a small number of basic sources and it must be free from doubt. They would agree that some beliefs are known only because some other beliefs are known. Basically foundationalist, agree that to justify anything you must one, ditch everything, and rebuild from solid foundation and two, you must eliminate mistakes. Ideally Descartes claim of his existence became a fundamental element of Western philosophy, as it helped to form a secure foundation for proving knowledge in the face of doubt. By proving his own existence Descartes is then able to prove that some beliefs cannot be doubted. He shows that thinking proves one existence, and the idea of even doubting it proves it to be right. He uses his theory of knowledge to prove that the existence of the mind, is
To some degree, I believe that Descartes did confirm God’s existence, when one takes into consideration of the arguments that were presented and the limitations that were placed on the Meditator. For instance, when the Meditator was attempting to prove God’s existence by demonstrating that God does not depend on the existence of a substance, considering that God holds perfection in sovereignty and knowledge, which the idea of God could not be invented by the imagination or brought from the material world. This type of analysis was centered on the Meditator’s intellectual judgement, so that the Meditator could attain a clear and distinct idea of God by relying on the mind alone, since the Meditator understands that adventitious and factitious
Descartes sets aside his senses and his images of bodily things before commencing his argument for the existence of God. The third Meditation can be split up into three main points. Classification of Ideas In order to prove God’s existence, Descartes concentrates on the thoughts
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.
While the process that led to his first absolute certainty regarding his existence was impressive, the fact that he proposed his existence as the key to God’s existence demolished the credibility of his argument (Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, p.70). For Descartes to exist, he believed that thoughts must come as a precondition. We understand that thoughts could only be able to process through a living organism. Before and right after the point at which his existence was proven as an absolute certainty, he had not confirmed that other living being could be capable of the same ability, thus if Descartes died then his thoughts would also being lost, his existence would be unproven and the very basis for the existence of God would be gone. The second problem with his argument lied within the cause and effect argument, in which there must exists a God whose presence encompassed everything.
We will be analyzing the work of Rene Descartes a French philosopher as well as a profound mathematician and scientist. We will be focusing on specifically, Descartes’ meditations (I, II) in which he describes to the reader his reaction in realizing how many false beliefs he held. He concluded that therefore he had to doubt anything he had depended those beliefs upon. In order to find what he knew he had to relinquish all his preconceived beliefs and start again from the foundations. It can even be pushed so far as to be read as a challenge to our very notion of rationality.
He then takes you through the thought process that led him to the one thing that lies beyond all doubt. He finds certainty in the statement Cogito, ergo sum or “I think, therefore I am.” FOOTNOT The first Meditation in Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy, is based on doubting almost everything he once believed as true. When Descartes found that beliefs he had were false, he realized all of his beliefs could be threatened.
Perhaps one of the most prominent figures in seventeenth century philosophy, Rene Descartes is still known for his great contributions to the philosophical branch of epistemology. His renowned book, Meditations on First Philosophy was first published in 1641. Divided into six different meditations, each meditation in the book addresses a specific epistemological issue. In the First Meditation, Descartes calls into doubt all of his previous beliefs and all he considered to be legitimate knowledge. He does so, however, with the intent of learning what is true, so he can separate real knowledge from falsehoods.
Existence is something that can be imagined and therefore is false and a fallacy. How does Descartes really know he exists maybe he is just imaging it all and that his premises behind the existence of God are fake as well. If someone exist then they must have been born which would mean that Descartes parents where the ones who brought him into existence, and their parents brought them in to existence and so on and so on. This would mean that God did not create Descartes existence but that someone way far down the chain of human existence started it
Rene Descartes calls everything into question that he has ever believed in his Meditations On First Philosophy, from doubting anything in existence to pondering what “I” truly means. In his quest to understand the concept of the individual in Meditation Six, Descartes brings up the notion of mind-body dualism. This essay will begin by elaborating on Descartes’ dualism theory and follow up by offering a refutation to Descartes’ claims by denying Descartes’ assertion that the mind and body can persist to form the concept of “I” as we generally understand ourselves. Descartes’ support for the conceivability argument centers on three premises. Descartes’ first premise relies on his belief that his ability to clearly and distinctly understand one thing as separate from another allows him to conclude that they are indeed different from one another.
Meaning that he believed the mind and physical body are separate realties (Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy). Since he believed that knowledge was derived from within an individual 's own brain he believed that is where their identity came from. This is seen in his Second Meditation when he said: "I think, therefore I am (Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy).” It is apparent that he believes one’s identity comes from the mind when he states “It seemed quite out of character for a body to be able to initiate movement, or to be able to initiate movements, or to be able to sense and think. (Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy).”
I. Descartes – Evil Genius Problem A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DESCARTES’ THEORY The Doubts about the Evil Genius Doubt 1. Does the evil genius exist? Although it may seem trivial to question the hypothetical being, Descartes’ arguments are also phrased cunningly to avoid questions.
In his Meditations on First Philosophy, French philosopher René Descartes proposes the concept of the cogito as an incontrovertible basis for his metaphysical system. This essay will explain the nature of Descartes’s cogito, assess his argument for the concept and its implications, and evaluate its merit as the “one thing, however slight, that is certain and unshakeable” he so desired. This essay will begin with an explanation of the principle of cogito ergo sum and a gloss of Descartes’s argument for its veracity. The essay will then examine the cogito’s implications with regards to what it dictates about the nature of one’s existence, and what it can and cannot determine about that existence. This paper will then conclude with an evaluation
In this paper, I will deliver a reconstruction of Descartes’ Cogito Argument and my reasoning to validate it as indubitable. I will do so by justifying my interpretations through valid arguments and claim, by showcasing examples with reasoning. Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher of the 17th century, who formulated the philosophical Cogito argument by the name of ‘cogito ergo sum,’ also known as “I think, therefore, I am.” Rene was a skeptic philosopher amongst many scholastic philosophers at his time. He took a skeptical approach towards the relations between thoughts and existence, to interpret his cogito argument as indubitable and whether it could serve as a foundational belief.
Descartes provides us with the notion of the “self” in his Second Meditation after establishing a plan of radical skepticism. Descartes views the self as the mind, insofar as he believes that he is primarily a “thinking thing”. For the remainder of this essay, the body will be defined as possessing the ability to receive and transmit the senses, as well as being able to interact with the world outside of the mind. I will discuss and judge the merit of the arguments Descartes stands on. Then I will conclude by arguing that the conclusion Descartes comes to cannot be achieved by his own path of logic.
Descartes Methodological Doubt and Meditations Methodological doubt is an approach in philosophy that employs distrust and doubt to all the truths and beliefs of an individual to determine what beliefs he or she is certain are true. It was popularized by Rene Descartes who made it a characteristic method of philosophy where a philosopher subjects all the knowledge they have with the sole purpose of scrutinizing and differentiating the true claims from the false claims. Methodological doubt establishes certainty by analytically and tentatively doubting all the knowledge that one knows to set aside dubitable knowledge from the indubitable knowledge that an individual possesses. According to Descartes, who was a rationalist, his first meditation