IB Philosophy Core: Descartes Meditation 1
- Created by: Milly
- Created on: 25-04-13 19:35
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- Descartes' First Meditation
- Main points
- Rationalist
- Based on pure reason, not sense experience (a priori)
- Initially reason only makes him certain of his mind, god and mathematics.
- Foundationalist
- Knowledge must be proved on foundations of certainty which are indubitable
- Indubitable: undoubtable
- Descartes seeks to challenge the truth of his beliefs
- This is to free his mind of all assumptions
- He is searching for true knowledge to find the reason for existence
- He likens his beliefs to a house built on rotting foundations. If the foundations are crumbling, it could all come crashing down.
- Knowledge must be proved on foundations of certainty which are indubitable
- Uses skepticism as a method, though not a skeptic himself.
- Scholastics
- Philosophers who based knowledge on their theologian (religious) beliefs
- Generalised doubt
- He don't doubt every individual belief, but tries to doubts everything from certain categories.
- Hyperbolic/global doubt
- Apples in a barrel: if one apple is rotten all should be examined
- Sense cannot be trusted as they are sometimes deceptive
- Relying on senses may mean that the world around us is a dream
- Evil demon
- God would not decieve
- Device to deploy Cartesian doubt
- Senses cause us to make assumptions which are in reality illusions.
- Rationalist
- Objections
- God would not decieve
- There seems to be an implied assumption of God's omnibenevolence.
- Global skepticism - quantifier shift fallacy
- If only a few senses deceive us, is it logical to reject them all.
- Response by Bernard Williams supporting Descartes
- If you were walking in a wood and some fungi were poisonous, you would not try to eat any of the fungi.
- Meaningless to doubt everything - can there be doubt when there is no certainty
- Wittgenstein
- Dreaming and consciousness
- Can distinguish between being awake and asleep- asymmetry
- Hobbes
- Can distinguish between being awake and asleep- asymmetry
- God would not decieve
- Main points
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