Descartes Certainty

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Certainty and Knowledge There is an unshakable relationship between knowledge and certainty. If a person is certain that a belief is true, he has conclusive reasoning in believing the belief and the belief may be considered as knowledge. According to Descartes, knowledge is obtained through absolute certainty where a belief cannot be false or be doubted. In this paper, I will counter argue why Descartes’s claim about absolute certainty is necessary for knowledge is wrong because absolute certainty cannot be attained and lesser degrees of certainty is can be considered as knowledge. To start off, Descartes aims to show that certain knowledge is possible with intent to overcome weak skepticism and establish a firm foundation for science. Descartes begin the Meditation by stating that he has realized that in order to establish anything in the sciences that was stable and long lasting, he would have to start over from the basic foundations of all knowledge (Descartes 1). Despite having many false beliefs that …show more content…

Descartes argue that the very moment he begins to doubt about his own existence, he initiates the process of thinking in which proves he does exist as a thinking thing (Descartes 4). This marks the first step to certain knowledge and is referred as the Cogito (Warriner 18). Descartes is certain about Cogito because it is clear and distinct. Descartes sets the minimum standard for the level of certainty arising is when the mind's perception is both clear and distinct (Descartes 10). In order for a person to have knowledge, it has to be clear and distinct. When an idea is clear implies the person's mind is present and attentive. If an idea is distinct it means the person can sharply separate from all other perceptions (Descartes

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