DESCARTES:

Information:

Born in France in 1596

Got an education at the hands of the Jesuits, which included maths and philosophy.

He took his law degree at the university of Pioters, in his hometown.

He became obsessed by the question whether there was anything we could be sure of, anything we could know for certain.

Key Works:

Discourse on method – published in 1634

Meditations – published in 1641

Key Terms:

“I think therefore I am”

“Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is conceived he is well supplied with it”

Important arguments:

The argument for universal doubt:

All doubt comes from our senses. Everything is open to doubt. * We do not know that external objects exist. * Senses put us with mental images of external objects so perception cant bring us any certainty

The dream argument:

* Often we have perceptions, which are similar to ones that are in our dreams. * There are no definite signs to distinguish dream experiences from an actual one. * It is possible that we are dreaming now and all our perceptions are false.

The deceiving God argument:

* God has it in his powers to deceive us about our knowledge. * We think we have a high knowledge of maths that helps us understand the world. * It is possible that we are deceived even in our mathematical knowledge of the basic structure of the world.

The evil demon argument:

* Instead of assuming that god is the source of our deceptions, we will assume that there exists an evil demon, which is capable of deceiving us in the same way, as god would be able to. * This helps Descartes question his knowledge further as well as re-questioning his existence.

The argument for his existence (cogito):

* The belief that one can be deceived gives reason to believe that one does actually