Rene Descartes Meditations

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Questions on Rene Descartes (1596-1650 CE)
(PHI 102)
Dr. Foster
1. Explain the philosophical mission undertaken by Descartes in his Meditations.

Descartes’s mission in his Meditations was to use the method of doubt in order to rid his mind of all beliefs that could be proved false. This provided him with the opportunity to arrive at some beliefs that could be proved ultimately right. In other words he wanted to find all beliefs that could not be false at all.

2. Would you describe Descartes’ epistemology as a priori or a posteriori? Explain your answer.

I would describe Descartes’ epistemology as a priori. Descartes uses the method of doubt in order to prove ideas and beliefs to be ultimately true or false. He does not use his experiences …show more content…

As in the definition of 2+2=4. Descartes spent what seemed like such a massive amount of time doubting beliefs and ideas that math seemed like the only thing that could not be doubted.

4. What role does extreme doubt play in Descartes’ philosophical mission?
Descartes use the method of doubt in order to prove beliefs and ideas to be true or false. This allowed him to make skeptical hypotheses that even called doubt upon his own knowledge. Which ultimately allowed him to come up with the conclusions found in his Meditations.

5. Delineate the epistemological criteria that Descartes relies upon to determine which ideas are not legitimately subject to doubt.

Descartes grouped certain ideas and beliefs into categories in order to use his method of doubt effectively. He uses the imagination, senses, and reason in order to make sense of the beliefs derived from the specific categories listed. Like I said before he then provides himself with skeptical hypotheses that even bring doubt into his own beliefs. So each of these categories go through this skeptical hypothesis and those that pass the first go through a second and so on, but those that fail can be proved false. This allows him to find beliefs and ideas that cannot be proved false at all such as how

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