Author: Kath
MEDITATION I
- Descartes presents the problem - that of accepting false opinions based on principles which can only be most doubtful and uncertain as true - and the urgency of solving such problem.
- “.. to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted up to then and to begin afresh from the foundations if I wished to establish something firm and constant in the sciences.”
- Science – used loosely; uses hard proof (irrefutable) which Descartes wants for Philosophy, too
- Descartes wants a method that philosophy can use which will eradicate human errors. He wishes to guide the reader in the recognition and demonstration of such method.
How Do I Know?
- In answering this, Descartes first wants to get rid of all that is erroneous in order to arrive at something that is indubitable.
- Likened to buildings which[] need to be demolished in order to build a new one with a stronger foundation.
- In the same way, we can treat the Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy as the foundation of Philosophy.
GOAL: SEARCH FOR /ATTAIN CERTITUDE
CRITERION: idea clara et distinct[a] (clear & distinct ideas)
- Descartes wants the certainty found in Mathematics.
- “… two and three added together always make five and a square never has more than four sides; it does not seem possible that truths so apparent can be suspected of any falsity or uncertainty.”
In his search for certitude, Descartes seems to question a lot of things. Does this make him a skeptic?
- Only methodologically speaking as he uses scepticism and universal doubt as tools in order to arrive at what is true.
Because Descartes believes that the destruction of the foundations necessarily brings down with it the rest of the edifice, he decides to assault the principles on which all his former opinions were based.
- SENSORY EXPERIENCES – cannot be clear and distinct as it can gives us data not congruent with reality.
(ex: though it seems like the sun revolves around the earth, the opposite is actually what is true).
- Everything we can sense cannot be accepted as true and should be subjected to doubt.
- AWAKE/ASLEEP
- When we are asleep, no matter how absurd our dreams are, we are in total belief of what is happening.
- Although the things in our dreams are [unreal], they are [] formed in the likeness of something real. .
- EVIL DEMON
- Likened to The Matrix which feeds the people everything they experience. Descartes treats the evil demon as a great deceiver.
- However, he emphasizes the importance of not just blindly accepting into our belief anything that is false and also of preparing our minds against the tricks of this evil demon.
- On the idea of God – one cannot be sure of the idea of God. Therefore, He cannot be the bedrock of certitude.
MEDITATION II
- Begins by giving a “repetition” of Meditation I. (Manifestation of his Jesuit education)
- In his search for certitude, Descartes compares himself to Archimedes who asked only for a fixed point in order to take the terrestrial globe
I can doubt the fact that I doubt, but I cannot doubt the fact that I am thinking
“I am, I exist.”- bedrock of certitude (cannot be debunked)
- “Though the evil demon deceives me, he cannot cause me to be nothing so long as I think I am something.”
- “I” = A “thinking thing”
- I experience my existence in my act of thinking.
- TO THINK IS TO EXIST = Thinking as an evidence necessary to prove existence.
- [The same insight is expressed differently in] I THINK THEREFORE I AM.[This expression, however, is open to misinterpretation as hasty readers may think that Descartes meant that] existence [i]s a logical consequence of thinking (cause & effect)
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