In Shakespeare’s Henry V and Descartes’ Meditations of First Philosophy, the protagonists lay a foundation that left a mark on the people of the time and of the generations after. King Henry marches on a conquest of political power to France in order to win what he believes is rightfully his while Descartes enters deep into his inner mind in the hopes of understanding certainty contrasting that of the church. However, both characters turn different directions to achieve the clarity and knowledge that they seek.
Descartes and Shakespeare both were writing in a time where the church was the dominant power and held a firm grip on the scientific inquiry that was trying to spread. Descartes withdraws into solitude after realizing “how numerous were the false opinions that in [his] youth [he] had taken to be true and thus…subsequently built upon them” (Descartes 59). Descartes felt the need to remove himself from the falsities around him and reestablish a firm foundation in the sciences. In order to erase years of false knowledge, he chooses to “attack straightaway those principles whi...
To read Damasio's critique alongside Stephen Gaukroger's remarkably rich intellectual biography of Descartes, however, is to realize that Damasio could just as aptly have titled his book "Descartes' Vision." As Gaukroger points out, Descartes was reviled during his lifetime and for a century after his death not for his dualism but for his materialism. Only when the history of philosophy was rewritten in the nineteenth century as the story of epistemology did Descartes come to bear the double designation of being both the "father" of modern philosophy and the ranking nativist who visited upon us the catastrophic separation of mind from body and of reason from emotion. These labels are essentially caricatures that distort the actual complexity of what Descartes struggled to work out in his cognitive theory. Gaukroger reconstructs this struggle for us, sometimes on a month-by-month basis, showing how Descartes shuttled back and forth between an account of the body and the pursuit of the mind.
René Descartes signifies a unique change compared to ancient and medieval traditions in many ways. The ancient and medieval traditions consist of ideals of which people impose meaning on things. These classical traditions also consist of how a person identity starts from outside of the body and the works its way inwards towards a complete person. Those traditions had a perception that humans began to analyzes themselves outside of themselves first before they analyze themselves internally. Descartes challenged the ancient and medieval traditions by having a different perception of how he came to know things. Descartes, instead of imposing meaning on things, he would derive meaning from things. He also challenged the classical traditions because
In this collection of essays, David Scott Kastan addresses Shakespeare studies in what he deems a “post-theoretical moment.” According to Chapter 1, theory is institutionally singular but intellectually plural, theory is always theories. While agreeing with the notion that the age of theory is over, Kastan does not devalue theory. Rather, he suggests that instead of producing new theories we must address the controversies in already existing ones. Since theory showed us that meaning was not inherent but rather dependent upon the situation, action, and context of the piece. These reliances are otherwise known as history. Kastan emphasizes the importance of theory and history and their relation to one another. He asserts that, “what [he is] arguing
Henry V is not a simple one as it has many aspects. By looking into
Descartes, R., & Cottingham, J. (1986). Meditation on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
A man whose ideas and perceptions of his time shocked many and he is considered the father of modern philosophy. His views and understanding of the world could be seen to many as radical, as he set out to understand himself and the nature of ideas and existence. His goal in writing the Meditations on First Philosophy written in 1641 was to show the clarity and distinction of ideas through the existence and immortality of God. This man, named Rene Descartes, had to place himself in the shoes of doubt, seen in meditation I. His doubts consisted of the senses in their original distinction such as a square book or a soft blanket and senses in seemingly apparent distinction which Descartes argues about when one dreams. He states that even the most vivid senses in our dreams could be subject to doubt.
This essay will focus on discussing the way people used to live and the beliefs they had about God being the creator and controller of the universe during the middle ages or the pre modern times by first describing what pre modernity is then following with the dynamics of that time. This essay will then discuss Descartes the father of modernity together with some other contributing philosophers, and how he changed the beliefs of the middle ages prior to the way in which people now see themselves as subjects which can give meaning to objects and are free to choose whatever meaning they want to give to themselves and their surroundings.
It is interesting to compare the relations between older and younger men in Henry IV and As You Like It. This essay will consider two extracts; 1 Henry IV, 2.4.109-62 (Bevington ed., pp. 182-6) and As You Like It, 2.3.27-77 (Brissenden ed., pp. 131-3). The two extracts differ dramatically in their approach to the relations between older and younger men.
Descartes, father of modern philosophy, lived during the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution moved away from religion and focused more on science. Descartes wanted to change the traditional way of learn, which was the Aristotelian way of learning. Descartes created his Meditations on First Philosophy, by publishing these works he hoped to provide a strong establishment for all the sciences and all knowledge in order to discover all truths. Descartes created a total of six meditations but we only studied one, two and three; therefore, I will be analyzing the ones we discussed in class in order to understand what Descartes is attempting to express.
- Henry IV - Part II . These two plays were very much amusing to the
Throughout Henry V, Shakespeare explores the relationships of King Henry of England. When considering his character, Henry’s relationships are called into question: is he using his associates for his personal gain or is he truly devout in his acclaim to God? The differing interactions with his people, his enemies, and the clergy reflect on his genuine motives. The strong comparison of his pious and conniving actions are evident while conversing with all his acquaintances. King Henry’s relationships bring to light the contrast between his piety and his utilitarian rule.
Although William Shakespeare is considered to be one of the most revered and well-renowned authors of all time, controversy surrounds the belief that he actually produced his own literary works. Some rumors even go so far as to question the reality of such a one, William Shakespeare, brought on by paralleling the quality of his pieces with his personal background and education. With such farfetched allegations, it persuaded others to peek into the person we all are taught to learn as “Shakespeare”, but who is actually the person behind these genius works of literary promise and enlightenment? To some, Shakespeare is as much accredited to his works as frequently as you see his name placed. To others, Shakespeare is a complex enigma into which we the people are supposed to unravel; the true author behind a falsely-given pseudonym. The debate pertaining to the true authorship of William Shakespeare’s works are still questioned in today’s society.
To some, truth is something that is absolute and unchanging. To others, truth is volatile and inconstant. In the 16th and 17th century, the foundations of civilization itself had been shaken. Many of the ideas which were thought to be absolutely true had been plunged into the depths of uncertainty. The cosmological, geographical, and religious revolutions called into question the nature of truth itself. It is no wonder, then, that some of the great writers at the time included within their works a treatise on the ways in which truth is constructed. Because of the major ideological revolutions that shaped their world, Milton, Montaigne, and Shakespeare all used characters and theatrical devices to create their own ideas on the construction of truth.
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.
...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.