IB Philosophy Core: Descartes Meditation 2
Summary of Descartes' Meditation 2
- Created by: Milly
- Created on: 25-04-13 20:59
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- Descartes Second Meditation
- Main points
- Concludes that doubt is a form of thought, so he must be conscious and exist
- Cogito ergo sum
- I think therefore I am
- Not directly referred to in Descartes' meditations, but alludes to its meaning
- sum res cogitans
- Deductive syllogism
- Consists of major and minor premise with a conclusion
- Ergo sum, ergo existo
- I am , I exist
- Self evident andnecessarytruth
- Writes this instead of I think therefore I am
- Wax block argument
- If objects do exist and undergo phase change, then the only characteristics they maintain are extension, flexibility and changeablity
- As wax melts everything that we perceive through our sense perceptions to define wax changes
- He knows wax is wax through intellect alone
- Only humans are able to understand, animals perceive changes in the wax but do not understand
- Our senses and our imagination are limited to what can be determined, whereas our minds can conceptualise the infinite.
- The mind is 'better known than the body' because he can see it 'clearly and distinctly'
- Objections
- There is thinking - no proof of who the thinker is
- Ayer
- Free floating thought
- There is a thinker but not a proof that the momentary fragments of thinking are linked to a continuous self like Descartes 'I'
- Russell
- Are we the same self as 5 years ago, though we have substantially changed
- No coherent argument given to the permanence of the thinker
- Russell
- Descartes might prove awareness of pre consciousness but no direct association with 'I'
- Cogito ergo sum
- Enthymatic syllogism
- He misses a premise which would be 'All thinking things exist'
- He would be assuming thinking things exist which he has not proven
- He misses a premise which would be 'All thinking things exist'
- Enthymatic syllogism
- Wax argument
- Empiricists argue that Descartes cannot rely on the wax argument as he uses sense experience to understand the initial characteristics of object
- In response Descartes may argue that he is not yet trying to prove that external objects exist, merely that if they do then extension is their only characteristic
- Empiricists argue that Descartes cannot rely on the wax argument as he uses sense experience to understand the initial characteristics of object
- There is thinking - no proof of who the thinker is
- Main points
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