This week in class dealt with a concept Dualism. Specifically Descartes Dualism. Another interesting topic for this week. Dualism is a very old concept that came from Greece. At that time, most Greeks had the perception that the soul of a man was different from their body itself and both the soul and body had no type of connection to each other. The body was seen as a prison for the soul. Descartes was an interesting fellow because like most people should do in life, he questioned and doubted most things in his life that could not be for certain. Descartes doubted the universe, people and even himself. The body that he was in his existence. Descartes believed that it could have been possible that he was just dreaming about his existence and …show more content…
Just that fact he was unsure if he was dreaming or awake tells that he is definitely in a doubting state of mind. If he was to doubt only means that he's thinking. Because he can think, says that he is a thinking being. So, the expression " I think therefore I am does summarize the philosophy of Descartes. Many of his contemporaries who believed that they should doubt everything and all, Descartes believed that it's not plausible to doubt everything in reality but only come to a true knowledge of understanding for …show more content…
I think that if a person is aware that they are thinking, feeling, make assumptions and draw conclusions then of course that the person is awake and is not dreaming. Descartes, on different occasions, he believed himself to be awake when in fact he was just dreaming. I think that it is crazy for someone to say that one cannot tell the difference between if they were awake or dreaming. Of course, it is not possible to say that someone is awake when they are really sleeping because if they are reflecting or thinking, then they are not sleeping. It's not impossible for someone to start thinking while being asleep. When a person starts to feel sensations that he feels cannot be dreaming. Feelings of pain and pleasure are sensations that are manifested when a person is awake not
Any truth that can exist in one can exist in the other. Because of this, there is no definite way to tell if an experience is dreamt or not. The arguments against this are purely speculative, based on personal experiences, and perhaps experiences of others, but that is not enough. Just because one person may not feel pain during a dream, signifying some sort of differentiation between the two states, does not mean another person doesn’t. Because all the evidence against this argument are purely speculative and circumstantial, it proves that we cannot prove consciousness at any given moment with Cartesian certainty. A waking state does exist, however, our ability to differentiate it from a sleeping state is impossible, leading to confusion about experiences. Having Cartesian certainty about whether or not we are dreaming at any given moment allows us to evaluate all the other aspects that might be skewed our findings. Because we may be asleep at any moment, who is to say our knowledge and experiences aren’t all dreamed? The brain, although a complex mechanism, is not complex to come up with the ideas that we have experienced within them. We may form new ideas based on our experiences, but the basis of it must have been experienced at one point or another. Our brain’s need reference for knowledge, and for us to know absolute truths, we need to understand that some truths may not be as
In Meditations, Descartes brings doubt to everything he believes because it is human nature to believe that which is false. He states that most of what he believes comes from the senses and that a lot of times those senses can be deceived. His conclusion of doubting everything is based on his example of a basket of apples. It goes as follows; you have a basket of apples but you fear that some apples have gone bad and you don't want them to rot the others, so you throw all the apples out of the basket. Now that the basket is empty you examine each apple carefully and return the good apples to the basket. This is what he does with his beliefs, he follows and keeps only those beliefs of which he is sure of. Our beliefs as a whole must be discarded and then each individual belief must be looked at carefully before we can accept it. We must only accept those beliefs we feel are good.
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.
This idea begins the philosopher’s ongoing discussion on the body and the mind. The first thing he must do is prove he exists beyond a doubt. Descartes declares, “If I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed” (4). This idea rests on the ability of his mind, if he did not actually exist, he would not be have any sort of mental activity. From this early point in the text, Descartes foregrounds the superiority of the mind. As Blackburn puts it, “he is forced to recognize that his knowledge of his self is not based on knowledge of his embodied existence” (20). For Descartes, the ability the think defines the self (the mind/soul)– he cites thought as the one thing that cannot be separated from him. He believes if he stopped thinking he would stop existing. His ability to think sustains him, at this point in his meditations he is only a mind, his mental existence is the only thing he has
According to René Descartes, substance dualism is a dual particular kind of matter that has two kinds of properties. In this case, the two kinds of properties are mental properties and physical properties of human beings. The mental properties are the thoughts of an individual and the physical properties are the extension in space. Descartes explains that a person is not identical to a body; a person can exist without a body because it is not a body. Henceforth, Descartes claims that substance dualism is true. From this point of view, Descartes makes his claim that substance dualism is true in order to make clear what the new science really is about, to explain the new physics of the contemporary period, and to figure out the vitality of the
Rene Descartes’ greatest work, Meditations on First Philosophy, attempts to build the base of knowledge through a skeptical point of view. In the First Meditation, Descartes argues that his knowledge has been built on reason and his senses, yet how does he know that those concepts are not deceiving him? He begins to doubt that his body exists, and compares himself to an insane person. What if he is delusional about his social ranking, or confused about the color of his clothes, or even unaware of the material that his head is made of? This is all because the senses are deceiving, even in our dreams we experience realistic visions and feelings. Finally, Descartes comes to the conclusion that everything must be doubted, and begins to build his
existed in life, the physical and the nonphysical. He broke his theory of Dualism into two
After all of Descartes' study and contemplation of math and science, he decided to find a single principle without doubt on which to build knowledge. His purpose in life became the development of a metaphysical theory that would prove the mathematical truth he had found. His analytical system of doubt led him to doubt everything in the world. He finally reached the conclusion that everything can be doubted except for one thing, his own existence. Even this was called into doubt and found true. Descartes rationalized that by doubting his own existence, he was thinking. If he was thinking, then he must exist. Then he contemplated whether he was awake or asleep. If he was asleep, then he was dreaming that he was thinking and therefore not existing. He decided that one could use sense perception to realize if one was awake of asleep. Finally he concluded, "I think, therefore I am." This became the basis for his entire system of beliefs. Descartes' argument for existence was called "cogito ergo sum." All of Descartes philosophical arguments were made by analytical means. He deduced the conclusion.
Unless he could be absolutely certain of something he would refuse to accept it as a basis for true knowledge. He could doubt his senses because they were sometimes deceived, by illusions or trickery. Dreams were experiences that seemed real but were not. He doubted his reason because he sometimes made mistakes in reasoning. As a cure to his repeated opinions, he supposed that there was some powerful demon who could deceive him completely, so that if there was a doubt about anything he would have to treat that thing as false. He had to be there to be deceived. Whatever happened he was still there, the demon could not make him doubt that. This is the famous saying 'Cogito Ergo Sum' or 'I think, therefore I am'. Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true I have collected either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and to never trust completely those who have deceived us even once. (Meditations on First Philosophy). There was a question which was referred to by 'I'? To answer this question Descartes suggested another round of doubt. He decided that his demon was capable of deceiving him into believing that he had even a body, any process related to his body was, therefore, subject to doubt. Finally, he hit upon the answer: Descartes concludes that he is a thinking thing, and he could exist without a body. It is at this point where most people find a major barrier if our minds are not a part of the extended universe, ie. have no physical properties. Spinoza suggested that physical things and mental things were just aspects (or modes) of the substance of the universe. Thus they were, in fact, different aspects of the same thing, and a complete explanation of the physical aspects of the mind could not include any details on the mental aspects and vice versa. This answer
In the first meditation, Descartes makes a conscious decision to search for “in each of them [his opinions] at least some reason for doubt”(12). Descartes rejects anything and everything that can be doubted and quests for something that is undeniably certain. The foundation of his doubt is that his opinions are largely established by his senses, yet “from time to time I [Descartes] have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once”(12). First, Descartes establishes that error is possible, employing the example of the straight stick that appears bent when partially submerged in water, as mentioned in the Sixth Replies (64-65). Secondly, he proves that at any given time he could be deceived, such is the case with realistic dreams. Further, Descartes is able to doubt absolutely everything since it cannot be ruled out that “some malicious demon … has employed all his energies in order to deceive me” (15). The malicious demon not only causes Descartes to doubt God, but also sends him “unexpectedly into a deep whirlpool which tumbles me around so that I can neither stand on the bottom or swim on the top”(16). Descartes has reached the point where he must begin to rebuild by searching for certainty.
He quickly releases that this is the foundation of most of his beliefs. He first acknowledges that sometime our senses can deceive us, but say that our senses is mostly sturdy. It is after this that Descartes realizes that there has been times where he has been sleeping and in his dream he was certain that he was awake and sensing real objects. Though his current senses may have be dream senses, he suggests that even dream senses are drawn from our experience of us awake. He then discovers that there are times in which he cannot distinguish whether he is in his waking state and his dream state.
René Descartes laid the foundations for Cartesian Dualism within his Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes provides most of his dualist view within the second and sixth meditations. Dualism is the belief, or school, within philosophy of mind that the mind and body are separate. Cartesian Dualism, specifically, is essentially substance dualism, which argues that the mind and body are of separate substances, in Descartes’ case, the mind being spiritual and the body being physical. This viewpoint was a common one during Hobbe...
Descartes agrees with dualism, and stands by the mind being independent of the body and vice versa. We agree with the ideas of dualism every time we say, “I am a
Descartes ' theory of Substance Dualism states that there are two fundamental substances, mind, and body. The mind and body are completely different from each according to Descartes. The body is an extended thing, meaning it takes up space and has surfaces..
Descartes was incorrect and made mistakes in his philosophical analysis concerning understanding the Soul and the foundation of knowledge. Yes, he coined the famous phrase, “I think therefore I am,” but the rest of his philosophical conclusions fail to be as solid (Meditation 4; 32). Descartes knew that if he has a mind and is thinking thoughts then he must be something that has the ability to think. While he did prove that he is a thinking thing that thinks (Meditation 3; 28), he was unable to formulate correct and true philosophical arguments and claims. For instance, his argument for faith that a non-deceiving God exists and allows us to clearly reason and perceive was a circular argument. Another issue with Descartes' philosophy is that he wanted to reconcile scientific and religious views, which is wrong since the two maintain completely different foundational beliefs and they should exist exclusively- without relation to the other. Thirdly, he believed that the mind was the Self and the Soul, failing to recognize that humans have bodies and the outside world exists, and through which we gain our knowledgeable. Lastly, Descartes argues that ideas are all innate while they actually are not- we gain knowledge through experience.