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Analysis of Descartes' first meditation
Descartes first meditations
Analysis of Descartes' first meditation
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Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy
Rene Descartes set the groundwork for seventeenth century rationalism, the view opposed by the empiricist school of thought. As a rationalist, Descartes firmly believed in reason as the principal source of knowledge. He favoured deduction and intellect over the senses and because of this he did not find comfort in believing that his opinions, which he had developed in his youth, were credible. It is for this reason that Rene Descartes chose to “raze everything to the ground and begin again from the original foundations,” (13). On page thirteen of his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes made the claim that these opinions from his youth were false, and therefore those opinions that he had built upon them were also false. In this book, Descartes claims to have freed his mind of all those false opinions and begins by believing nothing, because he is attempting to obtain an objective view of the truth, and this is something he cannot do if he is being influenced by his previous misconceptions. On page fourteen, just before nineteen in the margins, Descartes discusses the deceptive nature of the senses. He claims that “whatever I had admitted until now as most true I received either from the senses or through the senses” (14), and because Descartes believes that we should never put our trust in anything that has deceived us even once (14), he concludes that he cannot trust anything he has known as true up until now. This is Descartes’ reasoning behind doubting everything he once thought he knew, and from this conclusion, he goes on to arrive at the one absolute certainty that he exists.
To arrive at this certainty, he first mentions that in order to determine that we know anythi...
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...ng, and thinking implies existence. Therefore, he has discovered one indubitable belief so far—that he exists. In Mediation III he proves God’s existence as yet another indubitable idea with his first two arguments for God’s existence, and yet another time with his third argument in Mediation V. He continues on and establishes the possibility of acquiring knowledge about the world based on deduction and perception, creating an unshakeable ground upon which all other knowledge can be based. One final conclusion Descartes comes up with is that it is acceptable to trust that our senses communicate accurate information to our brains, as long as we apply our intellect and our deductive reasoning to that information. Therefore, he arrives at a fundamental set of principles that one can know as true without any doubt, and acquires a firm foundation for genuine knowledge.
Baird and Kaufmann, the editors of our text, explain in their outline of Descartes' epistemology that the method by which the thinker carried out his philosophical work involved first discovering and being sure of a certainty, and then, from that certainty, reasoning what else it meant one could be sure of. He would admit nothing without being absolutely satisfied on his own (i.e., without being told so by others) that it was incontrovertible truth. This system was unique, according to the editors, in part because Descartes was not afraid to face doubt. Despite the fact that it was precisely doubt of which he was endeavoring to rid himself, he nonetheless allowed it the full reign it deserved and demanded over his intellectual labors. "Although uncertainty and doubt were the enemies," say Baird and Kaufmann (p.16), "Descartes hit upon the idea of using doubt as a tool or as a weapon. . . . He would use doubt as an acid to pour over every 'truth' to see if there was anything that could not be dissolved . . . ." This test, they explain, resulted for Descartes in the conclusion that, if he doubted everything in the world there was to doubt, it was still then certain that he was doubting; further, that in order to doubt, he had to exist. His own existence, therefore, was the first truth he could admit to with certainty, and it became the basis for the remainder of his epistemology.
In his work, Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes narrates the search for certainty in order to recreate all knowledge. He begins with “radical doubt.” He asks a simple question “Is there any one thing of which we can be absolutely certain?” that provides the main question of his analysis. Proceeding forward, he states that the ground of his foundation is the self – evident knowledge of the “thinking thing,” which he himself is. Moving up the tower of certainty, he focuses on those ideas that can be supported by his original foundation. In such a way, Descartes’s goal is to establish all of human knowledge of firm foundations. Thus, Descartes gains this knowledge from the natural light by using it to reference his main claims, specifically
Descartes begins his Second Mediation by stating that in the previous day during his “Project” he had been coming across much doubt “… ones that are too serious to be ignored.” But in results of this he ponders upon many questions like whether or not he himself his “something” and that if he is indeed thinking that he must be something. What is one person that can 't think? But a thing that can indeed think must be existing or else it would not be able to think. Even though he had previously convinced himself that nothing exists not even the Earth, the sky nor himself. But if he is having these thoughts of doubt he is saying that he must exist if he himself is able to think. He later states that there may be an almighty power above him and he may be the one deceiving him. But again he stumbles across the thought that he must exist in order to be deceived. So if there is someone above him that someone cannot deceive nothing. So if that almighty power is deceiving what Descartes believes is him then Descartes, Himself, does undoubtedly
In constructing his argument for God's existence, Descartes analyzes several aspects of the nature of human thought. He begins by outlining the various types of thoughts we have, which include ideas, thoughts, volitions and judgments. Ideas, or images of ideas can only exist within the mind and are certain of existence. Volitions, or choices are firmly within the mind and are also certain. Emotions, such as love, fear, hate, all exist in the mind and are certain as well. Judgments involve reference to effects outside the mind and are subject to doubt. Therefore, judgments are not certain and distinct. Descartes believes that images, volitions, and emotions are never false but it is our judg...
“Cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am.” A mathematician, scientific thinker, and metaphysician Rene Descartes used this term in his “Meditation on First Philosophy.” This term has become famous especially in western philosophy. However, this term was not Descartes only legacy. His legacies include the development of the Cartesian coordinates, philosophical books, and theories. Even though the distinction between mind and body can be traced to the Greeks, Descartes account of the mind and body relationship has been considered the first and the most influential. Descartes was born in 1596 in France, from 1628 to 1649 Descartes remained in Holland, during this time he composed multiple works that set the scene for all later philosophical study of mind and body. (René Descartes and the legacy of mind/body dualism) “Meditation on First Philosophy,” is one of Descartes famous treatises. First published in the 17th century, it consists of six meditations. In the first meditation Descartes eliminates all belief in things that are not certain, basically he removes everything from the table. Then one by one he examines each belief and determines whether any of these beliefs can be known for sure. Meditations three and five focus on the existence of God. This ontological argument is both fascinating and poorly understood in the philosophical community. Descartes tries to prove God’s existence by using simple but influential foundations. (Nolan). Descartes innate ideas proof and ontological proof of the existence of God is going to be assessed through the summarization of meditation thee and meditation five, while his work is also going to be compared to Anselm’s ontological argument on the existence of God.
One of Rene Descartes’ major culminations in Meditations on First Philosophy is “I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind” (Descartes:17). This statement can be explicated by examining Descartes’ Cartesian method of doubt and his subsequent discovery of basic truths. Even though I do believe that Descartes concludes with a statement that is accurate: cogito ergo sum, there are areas of his proof that are susceptible to defamation. These objections discover serious error with Descartes’ method used in determining the aforementioned conclusion.
The teaching of Descartes has influenced many minds since his writings. Descartes' belief that clear and distinct perceptions come from the intellect and not the senses was critical to his ultimate goal in Meditations on First Philosophy, for now he has successfully created a foundation of true and certain facts on which to base a sold, scientific belief structure. He has proven himself to exist in some form, to think and therefore feel, and explains how he knows objects or concepts to be real.
According to Descartes, “because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wanted to suppose that nothing was exactly as they led us to imagine (Descartes 18).” In order to extinguish his uncertainty and find incontrovertible truth, he chooses to “raze everything to the ground and begin again from the original foundations (Descartes 59).” This foundation, which Descartes is certain to be the absolute truth, is “I think, therefore I am (Descartes 18).” Descartes argues that truth and proof of reality lies in the human mind, rather than the senses. In other words, he claims that the existence of material objects are not based on the senses because of human imperfection. In fact, he argues that humans, similarly to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, are incapable of sensing the true essence or existence of material objects. However, what makes an object real is human thought and the idea of that object, thus paving the way for Descartes’ proof of God’s existence. Because the senses are easily deceived and because Descartes understands that the senses can be deceived, Descartes is aware of his own imperfection. He
Humans can grasp certain ideas to a certain extent but how do we grasp ideas beyond our finite selves. In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes claims that we have the idea of an infinite substance and are able to grasp infinite ideas but we should not be able to do this because we are finite beings. Descartes goes on to say that the idea of an infinite substance could not have come anywhere else but from some infinite being namely God so he has to exist because we are finite.
...received through the senses and experience. Locke makes a statement in Book II about experience, which says, "In that all our Knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself."
Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six different steps that he named "Meditations" because of the state of mind he was in while he was contemplating all these different ideas. His six meditations are "One:Concerning those things that can be called into doubt", "Two:Concerning the Nature of the Human mind: that it is better known than the Body", "Three: Concerning God, that he exists", "Four: Concerning the True and the False", "Five: Concerning the Essence of Material things, and again concerning God, that he exists" and finally "Six: Concerning the Existence of Material things, and the real distinction between Mind and Body". Although all of these meditations are relevant and necessary to understand the complete work as a whole, the focus of this paper will be the first meditation.
Throughout the six meditations on First Philosophy, French philosopher Rene Descartes seeks to find a concrete foundation for the basis of science, one which he states can only include certain and unquestionable beliefs. Anything less concrete, he argues will be exposed to the external world and to opposition by philosophical sceptics.
Furthermore, movements such as rationalism, empiricism, subjectivism and skepticism were also bought to notice upon which further “enlightenment” was accomplished. The 18th century was a period in which all intellectual, political and social matters were developed. These matters involved science, politics, society and philosophy and together they shaped the modern, western view of the world. Out of the many developments made in the 18th century, rationalism was one that was widely known and was established by one of the many well-known philosophers, René Descartes. By rationalism, Descartes attempted to persuade the application of doubt in any given scenario that can be doubted. In simple terms, it was a way of questioning every proposition under a false light to be able to reach an imp...
...ll true knowledge is solely knowledge of the self, its existence, and relation to reality. René Descartes' approach to the theory of knowledge plays a prominent role in shaping the agenda of early modern philosophy. It continues to affect (some would say "infect") the way problems in epistemology are conceived today. Students of philosophy (in his own day, and in the history since) have found the distinctive features of his epistemology to be at once attractive and troubling; features such as the emphasis on method, the role of epistemic foundations, the conception of the doubtful as contrasting with the warranted, the skeptical arguments of the First Meditation, and the cogito ergo sum--to mention just a few that we shall consider. Depending on context, Descartes thinks that different standards of warrant are appropriate. The context for which he is most famous, and on which the present treatment will focus, is that of investigating First Philosophy. The first-ness of First Philosophy is (as Descartes conceives it) one of epistemic priority, referring to the matters one must "first" confront if one is to succeed in acquiring systematic and expansive knowledge.
In Descartes Meditations he utilizes that the sensible properties of a piece of bees wax do not define inherently what the wax is because if the wax changes according to its sensible properties it is still the same piece of wax and the only way to come to that conclusion is through the mind. Furthermore, what we know about the wax, whether there are characteristics that change or do not change, does not alter the fact that it is the same piece of wax, which further reiterates Descartes main point in Meditations which is that the senses cannot be trusted and that we must rely solely on the mind which we know exists because "[We] think, therefore [we] are."