Descartes and Aristotle

1353 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Epistemology rené descartes

People live life one day at a time with the same guidance from their ancestors, and they often question their existence in the universe and try to understand the world around them. People often question their existence in the universe. Philosophers try to answer questions that most people will not think of in their daily lives. Most philosophers try to get to the truth of logical questions through epistemology. Epistemology is a “branch of philosophy that studies the nature and possibility of knowledge” (Soccio). Through rationalism, philosophers use reason to make conclusions about the world’s existence. There are two methods of rationalism: a priori and a posteriori. A priori is knowledge deriving from reason and prior to experience to find the truth. While, a posteriori is knowledge deriving from the senses to find the ultimate truth. Philosophers have different approaches to the empirical question of the understanding of the universe. Approaching epistemological questions through a priori to find certainty wins over using a posteriori. To argue for this, I will discuss Descartes and Aristotle’s epistemological approaches to knowing God. Raising objections against Aristotle’s method in approaching how things exist. Knowledge using the senses,which are illusions of the mind, is inferior to knowledge from reason, that uses simple basic principles to arrive at the ultimate truth. Most philosophers tried to prove God’s existence through a posteriori. The philosopher Aristotle tried to prove God’s existence through the four causes, but failed because it seemed to deny God's existence and it did not provide enough evidence of the soul's immortality. He explained why things existed through the four causes: material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and the final cause....

... middle of paper ...

...The body gets old and breaks down because it lives in time and space. But when the body dies out, the mind lives on. Aristotle believed that the mind died with the body. The mind is associated with the soul because the mind is the essence of the soul. The mind is immortal because it does not exist in time and space. Aristotle did not believe in the soul being immortal because he thought characteristics of the senses make up an individual but once dies out with the body. Humans have the ability to control their thoughts, but not their bodies. Descartes believed that the mind had will power because it had the ability to control its own thoughts. Works Cited Soccio, Douglas J. Archetypes of Wisdom. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning, 1976. Print Watson, Richard A. & Co. “Rene Descartes.” Encyclopaedia Britannica online. Encyclopaedia Britannica. The.. 5 Feb. 2013. Web. The Web. The Web. 30 Apr.

Show More
Related

  • Rene Descartes: Father Of Modern Western Philosophy

    146 Words  | 1 Pages

    Before students can judge others ideologies they must understand the philosopher first. Rene Descartes, the father of modern western philosophy, was born in 1596 to French parents. Rene Descartes excelled in mathematics. By 1616 Descartes received his baccalaureate and became a licensed lawyer. In 1618 Descartes joined the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau. During his service Descartes never saw combat, but while in the service he was able to travel and explore the world. During his time in Germany Descartes began to inquire about life’s hardest questions regarding logic, reasoning, arithmetic, God and knowledge. By the early 1830’s Descartes continued his conquest of knowledge; he secluded himself from all temptations and began to write. Descartes

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of George Berkeley And Descartes

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although their methods and reasoning contrasted one another, both philosophers methodically argued to come to a solid, irrefutable proof of God, which was a subject of great uncertainty and skepticism. Through Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous and Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes and Berkeley paved the way towards an age of confidence and faith in the truth of God’s perfect existence actively influencing the lives of

    Read More

  • 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

  • Descartes Pre Modernity

    1915 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Mind and Soul

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    In summary, it is my belief that our mind exists within our brain; however that is just its housing. Upon the death of our physical body our mind moves and inhabits our soul in a similar way. In terms of the immortality of our mind, it undergoes a transformation so great during these transitions that the old mind no longer exists as it did. Over time, if the soul dies as well, and the mind transitions again to a different vessel, these changes continually alter and shape the mind to the point where it is no longer the original.

    Read More

  • Descartes philosophy

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    Descartes’ “evil genius scenario” provides the possibility for the existence of an evil genius that is in control of our world in place on an omnipotent god. By in control, I mean that he would in some magical way compose our lives by his own will, thus making any certain knowledge about material objects impossible. This scenario presents some real questions with Descartes’ argument because it basically completely rules out the possibility of any god.

    Read More

  • The First Philosophy Of Descartes

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    Descartes was a philosopher who seemed to discard anything which was not absolutely certain and focused on what was known. In Meditation two of Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes is doubtful of everything, as he believes that if there is any doubt for something then it must not exist. With this in mind he begins to doubt his own existence but realizes that he is unable to doubt it. Descartes believes that there is a deceiver that is powerful which deceives him. Thus if something is deceiving him, Descartes believes that he must exist in order to be deceived. As result, in determining what he really is, Descartes comes to the conclusion that he is a thinking thing, and makes the point that being able to have thoughts or to be deceived, requires one to be thinking and if one is thinking then by default you must exist. In this paper I will talk about what Descartes knows he is, the powers he possesses, and the ways he can know.

    Read More

  • The Rationalism of Descartes and Leibniz

    1674 Words  | 4 Pages

    Descartes, Rene. The Philosophical Writings, tr. John Cottingham and Dugald Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

    Read More

  • Descartes' Wax Passage

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    How do we know what we know? Ideas reside in the minds of intelligent beings, but a clear perception of where these ideas come from is often the point of debate. It is with this in mind that René Descartes set forth on the daunting task to determine where clear and distinct ideas come from. A particular passage written in Meditations on First Philosophy known as the wax passage shall be examined. Descartes' thought process shall be followed, and the central point of his argument discussed.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: Cartesian Skepticism Created By René Descartes

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    While on his journey to reveal the absolute truths and debunk anything that could be considered doubtful, Descartes’ experiences using this form of skepticism has allowed him to

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Descartes And Aristotle

    1509 Words  | 4 Pages

    The pursuit of knowledge has led many a philosopher to wonder what the purpose of life truly is, and how the material and immaterial are connected. The simple fact is, we can never know for certain. Arguments can be made, words can be thrown around, and rationale can be supported, but we as mere humans are not capable of arriving at the perfect understanding of life. Nonetheless, in the war against our own ignorance, we seek possible explanations to explain that which science and math cannot. Philosopher 's such as Plato and Aristotle have made notable contributions to our idea of the soul and its role in the grand scheme of life, while some, such as Descartes, have taken a more metaphysical view by pondering the impact one 's mind has on

    Read More

  • Aristotle's Theory of the Soul in the De Anima

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    Aristotle's Theory of the Soul in the De Anima centres on the kinds of souls possessed by different kinds of living things, distinguished by their different operations. He holds that the soul is the form, or essence of any living thing; that it is not a distinct substance from the body that it is in; that it is the possession of soul (of a specific kind) that makes an organism an organism at all, and thus that the notion of a body without a soul, or of a soul in the wrong kind of body, is simply unintelligible. Aristotle uses his familiar matter/form distinction to answer the question “What is soul?” he says that there are three sorts of substance which are matter, form and the compound of the matter and form. Aristotle is interested in compounds that are alive. These - plants and animals - are the things that have souls. Their souls are what make them living things. Aristotle also argues that the mind is immaterial, able to exist without the body, and immortal by “Saying that something has a soul just means that it is alive”

    Read More

  • René Descartes and Thomas Hobbes

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the sixteen hundreds, the French philosopher René Descartes laid the foundations for the beginnings of Cartesian Dualism. In contrast, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued against dualism in favor of materialism. Recently, Cartesian Dualism, and dualism in general has fallen out of favor as materialism arose as a more plausible and explanatory theory regarding the interrelationships between body and mind. The translation Descartes’ writing in the Meditations is far more cryptic than Hobbes’ writing in the Leviathan. Making it far easier to see Hobbes’ claims. Hobbes provides a reasonable explanation against dualism in his objections to Descartes, and in his Leviathan, provides background upon his reasoning in those objections. Dualism may be less popular than materialism in current philosophy, but it may simply be because dualism has more or less reached some sort of block in regards to its further development, and not anything to do with the writings of Descartes or Hobbes. Descartes and Hobbes may have influenced many of the earlier bickering between philosophers of mind upon the subject of mind-body interaction, as Hobbes was likely the first objector to Descartes’ dualism.

    Read More

  • Rene Descartes and the Source of Knowledge

    2129 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Plato's Argument For The Immortality Of The Body And The Soul

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plato believed that the body and the soul were two separate entities, the body being mortal and the soul being immortal. In Plato’s phaedo, this is further explained by Socrates. He claims that by living a philosophical life, we are able to eventually free the soul from the body and its needs. If we have not yield to our bodily needs, we should not fear death, since it can than permanently detach the soul from the body. The most convincing argument for the immortality of the body is the theory of recollection, which shows that we are already born with knowledge of forms and that learning is thus recalling these ideas. If we are already born with knowledge this implies that are soul is immortal, since it would otherwise be a blank page.

    Read More

More about Descartes and Aristotle

Open Document