Descartes Meditations

1326 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Criticisms against Descartes' philosophy

Meditations is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is truly real. In these writings, he ultimately hopes to achieve absolute certainty about the nature of everything including
God, the physical world, and himself. It is only with a clear and distinct knowledge of such things that he can then begin understand his true reality. Descartes starts by looking at our usual sources for truth. Authority, which is churches, parents, and schools, he says, are not reliable sources for truth because time shows we all die, and that we are eventually proved wrong, much in the same way the accepted truths of science have changed dramatically over the course of history. Also, he considers the generally excepted view that our senses dependably report the absolute nature of reality. Simiar to authority,
Descartes discards the senses as a source of truth because of the “Dream Argument” or the belief that based on the senses there is no definite way of proving that you are dreaming or that you are awake. Therefore it is possible that everything we believe is false, making the senses an unreliable source. Upon establishing this, Descartes doubts the existence of a physical or external world. Despite that he has an idea of things in the world, he has no way of knowing if they exist past his own mind. Another point he addresses is mathematics. He soon realizes math’s truth isn’t completely reliable because of the “Demon Hypothesis”, which acknowledges the possibility of an all powerful being that is deceiving him about everything, including mathematics. As a result, Descartes ponders the possibility that he has no way of being completely positive about anything, even his existence. It is only after some deliberation that he decides that it is impossible to be incorrect about everything because he has doubt, and to posses doubt, there must be a doubter. Hence, he doubts, therefore he exists. With the assurance of his existence, he is presented with the deeper question of what he, himself, actually is. Descartes knows that he is not just a body based on his doubt of the senses. Despite the fact that he feels he is not a body, he does believe he has properties, such as doubt, that make him a substance.
From this he concludes that his is an immaterial substance and that his essential property is self-consciousness because you can have no real proof of yourself except through your own... ... middle of paper ...

...man life is acquisition of salvation and eternal life. Conversely, what science tells us is that the world is completely deterministic or all just a course of random evolution.
Descartes feels that the two, mind and matter, are in completely different arenas, both of which were created by God. The mind deals chiefly with freedom, and personal responsibility, which lies in the field of religion. Whereas matter is more connected to science, buts doesn't negate the influence of God because God provided us with a system, mathematics, to better understand the physical world around us. Thus, if accurately comprehended, no conflict should arise between science and religion. Descartes' focus in
Meditations is absolute certainty. To achieve this he first must strike all that he has come to accept as false and only then start to rebuild is foundation of knowledge. To insure the integrity of his newly acquired understanding of reality, he uses the method of doubt. It is only through this method that he can grasp the true nature of reality. After establishing the existence of himself, God, and the external world through this method, Descartes feels he now possess a clearer picture of reality.

Show More
Related

  • Prove the Existence of God Using Who Has the Idea of God

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this paper, I will explain how Descartes uses the existence of himself to prove the existence of God. The “idea of God is in my mind” is based on “I think, therefore I am”, so there is a question arises: “do I derive my existence? Why, from myself, or from my parents, or from whatever other things there are that are less perfect than God. For nothing more perfect than God, or even as perfect as God, can be thought or imagined.” (Descartes 32, 48) Descartes investigates his reasons to show that he, his parents and other causes cannot cause the existence of himself.

    Read More

  • What Does Descartes Mean By Thinking Essay

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    sensory perceptions. He is saying that because since he is a thing that think he could be creating an

    Read More

  • An Examination of the Second Meditation of Descartes

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Descartes Meditation 1 Analysis

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    He argues that if he does not solve God’s existence, he will not be certain about anything else. Thus, Descartes says that he has an idea of God and, therefore, God exists. However, in order to be certain of His existence, Descartes provides proofs that will illustrate his reasoning. The four proofs include formal reality vs. objective reality, something can’t arise from nothing, Descartes cannot be the cause of himself, and therefore, the bigger cause is God. Now that Descartes knows God is real, he must solve another aspect, which is if God can be a deceiver.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Descartes's View Of Thinking

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    All of the above examples such as the wax and excluding everything that exists go back to the intellect of being a thinking thing that stands alone and Cogito inference in which it registers the sufficient grounds. The ‘I’ that he finally answers is who he is in the end when he says he long held beliefs that cannot be put aside. This is the ‘I’ that he now knows and claims to be the one that can doubt and be deceived by himself and others that are powerful such as God that allows him to believe he truly exist with or without a body and only being a thinking

    Read More

  • Essay On The Meditations By Descartes

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Here’s a way to visualize this concept of existing: suppose that everything you think you know about the physical world is false. Instead, there is an evil genius who is

    Read More

  • An Arrogant Argument

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... of nature. In fact, this belief, which does beg the question, is what predominates his thinking.

    Read More

  • The Argument Of St Anselm's Argument For The Existence Of God

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is controversial if existence is a general class that can be categorized into existence in the mind and existence in reality or if there are multiple levels of existence. It is also controversial that there are only two categories of existence, if at all it can be categorized. Hence, for a supreme being, for which, as suggested by Thomas Aquinas, it is not very clear whether humans can perceive all of its qualities, a conclusion that God does not solely exists in the mind, should not lead to a conclusion that it exists in

    Read More

  • Descartes Proof Of God

    1660 Words  | 4 Pages

    He concludes he did not create the idea of God. A finite being is incapable of creating an idea of an infinite possibility. Therefore, God must have created the idea already in him when he was created. Concluding that God exists. He also touches upon the idea in which he resolves that it cannot be a deceiver.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    being that is beyond human, made from remnants of the dead, but he thinks that

    Read More

  • Descartes' Wax Passage

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    The teaching of Descartes has influenced many minds since his writings. Descartes' belief that clear and distinct perceptions come from the intellect and not the senses was critical to his ultimate goal in Meditations on First Philosophy, for now he has successfully created a foundation of true and certain facts on which to base a sold, scientific belief structure. He has proven himself to exist in some form, to think and therefore feel, and explains how he knows objects or concepts to be real.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of George Berkeley And Descartes

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Descartes, “because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wanted to suppose that nothing was exactly as they led us to imagine (Descartes 18).” In order to extinguish his uncertainty and find incontrovertible truth, he chooses to “raze everything to the ground and begin again from the original foundations (Descartes 59).” This foundation, which Descartes is certain to be the absolute truth, is “I think, therefore I am (Descartes 18).” Descartes argues that truth and proof of reality lies in the human mind, rather than the senses. In other words, he claims that the existence of material objects are not based on the senses because of human imperfection. In fact, he argues that humans, similarly to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, are incapable of sensing the true essence or existence of material objects. However, what makes an object real is human thought and the idea of that object, thus paving the way for Descartes’ proof of God’s existence. Because the senses are easily deceived and because Descartes understands that the senses can be deceived, Descartes is aware of his own imperfection. He

    Read More

  • Third Meditation, by Rene Descartes

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    Descartes proof of the existence of God is derived from his establishment that something cannot come from nothing. Because God is a perfect being, the idea of God can be found from exploring the different notions of ideas. Descartes uses negation to come to the conclusion that ideas do not come from the world or imagination; because the world contains material objects, perfection does not exist.

    Read More

  • Descartes' First Meditation

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rene Descartes is recognized as an influential abstract thinker. Although there have been objections to his idea's, he continues to invoke thinking among huge numbers of people. In the first meditation, Descartes does an excellent job of convincing the reader that all the information received from the senses can be called into doubt. He uses concrete arguments to show how humans often have the tendency to assume things they don't really know about, espically when this information is based on the senses. This work is a classic because of the originality of Descartes ideas, and the matter-of-fact way that he presents them. These are just some of the ingredients that compose a classic philosophy masterpiece.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Descartes’ Mind/Body Distinction

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Meditation on First Philosophy. His position on the body being a strictly physical entity while

    Read More

More about Descartes Meditations

Open Document