...Critical Analysis of Meditations on the First Philosophy Gage Berryman Philosophy 101 April 17, 2014 Rene Descartes writes his Meditations on First Philosophy according to God and the soul. Both of these factors are addressed in all six of his meditations. Each meditation has its own theme and main objective that contribute to its explanation. Although Descartes writing was challenging to understand, I have found sources to help clarify and back up the ideas that have been stated. I will analysis the ideas Descartes has mentioned in the first three of his meditations. The first meditation: “Of the things which may be brought within the sphere of the doubtful” In this section, Descartes states that he does not trust his senses because they are deceptive. He questions the sciences and the deceptiveness that they have within them. The only science that he believes to be truthful is arithmetic and geometry. They are based on simple objects. The other sciences are untrustworthy because they come from composite ideas. Descartes states “there is nothing in all that I formerly believed to be true” God also plays a large part in the discussion of this meditation. He believes that God is not deceptive and only speaks the truth. The journal Substance and Action in Descartes and Newton states “from Descartes's point of view, we cannot think of God as extended because God lacks geometric properties, unlike ordinary material bodies, which have shapes, and whose parts have various...
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...Paper #1: Descartes and Artificial Intelligence Blade Runner, a film based in the future, precisely 2019 shows the world with genetically engineered robots called replicants. Replicants look just like other adult beings that are substitutes for humans that live for only four years. Living for such a short period of time allows no opportunity for development or emotional growth. The name of the film Blade Runner, are those who hunt for “replicants” that are banned from earth for defying their position in society. Descartes provides us with principles that he considers is the nature of the human mind and its evaluating process, in which the replicants would not be considered human. In Descartes Sixth Meditation we see the distinguishing factors between the mind and body. “From this we are prompted to acknowledge that the natures of mind and body not only are different from one another, but even, in a manner of speaking, are contraries of one another”. Mind is different than the body. When both are working in equilibrium we are functioning well. Compared to replicants who have no thoughts or feelings, just the ability to continuously work and complete the task assigned to them. This is a result of the body performing physical labor while having no thought or interferences of the mind. To be considered a human you need to have these important things working in accordance, according to Descartes. “I am therefore precisely nothing but a thinking thing; that is, a mind, or...
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...René Descartes was a famous French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher. He was arguably known as the "Father of Modern Philosophy." Descartes published many works of mathematics and philosophy throughout his life. In one of his most important works, Meditations on First Philosophy, he added a number of arguments for and against skepticism. Skepticism is the doubt about the truth of something and that absolute knowledge is not possible. Like past famous philosophers before him, Plato and Parmenides, Descartes believed that "evidence from the senses was inadequate to prove the kind of justification required for a claim of knowledge." In the first of Rene Descartes Meditations, he provided arguments for the skeptical position. He realized that, based off his senses, he had accepted many false opinions as true and that everything he afterwards built upon his opinions could only be doubtful and uncertain. In his project, a quest for knowledge, he decided to disregard and discard all beliefs that were based on any evidence which could be doubted and proven as less than certain. He wanted to create a new, firm foundation. He decided to go about this project because he, like other famous philosophers, believed that much of what is believed is based on ones senses. Descartes noticed that his senses had often deceived him and it was prudent to trust completely in what has deceived a person even once. Aside from deceiving senses, Descartes was also reminded that everyone has dreamed...
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...Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes’ third meditation from his book Meditations on First Philosophy, examines Descartes’ arguments for the existence of God. The purpose of this essay will be to explore Descartes’ reasoning and proofs of God’s existence. In the third meditation, Descartes states two arguments attempting to prove God’s existence, the Trademark argument and the traditional Cosmological argument. Although his arguments are strong and relatively truthful, they do no prove the existence of God. At the start of the meditation, Descartes begins by rejecting all his beliefs, so that he would not be deceived by any misconceptions from reaching the truth. Descartes acknowledges himself as, “a thing that thinks: that is, a thing that doubts, affirms, denies, understands a few things, is ignorant of many things” He is certain that that he thinks and exists because his knowledge and ideas are both ‘clear and distinct’. Descartes proposes a general rule, “that whatever one perceives very clearly and very distinctly is true” Descartes discovers, “that he can doubt what he clearly and distinctly perceives is true led to the realization that his first immediate priority should be to remove the doubt” because, “no organized body of knowledge is possible unless the doubt is removed” The best probable way to remove the doubt is prove that God exists, that he is not a deceiver and “will always guarantee that any clear and distinct ideas that Descartes...
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...December 2nd, 2015 The Delusion Dilemma Rene Descartes once proposed a tedious accusation about dreaming, and how our senses that we use to perceive what is considered reality should not be trusted fully. In the Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes attempts to convey the fascinating illusion of always being in a dream without a certain ability to distinguish what is actually reality or what is a dream, or at bare minimum prove that there are no certain marks to prove otherwise. He states, “…as I think about this more carefully, I see plainly that there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep. The result is that I begin to feel dazed, and this very feeling only reinforces the notion that I may be asleep” (First Meditation). In my attempts to contrast what Descartes argument was comprised of and what certain illusions made him feel this way about our perception of physical existence. I turned my attention to his famous dream argument originally brought forth in his Mediation on First Philosophy, and will be using different ideologies between a John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, two famous English philosophers who have attempted to refute Rene Descartes’s dream argument by providing useful and insightful situations to further explain against the idea, as well as provide my own insight in concluding that we are not dreaming right now. It should be noted that within the context of Meditations, which is atypical from traditional...
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... 1. Compare and contrast The Matrix with the readings from Plato and Descartes. What are some similarities and differences? All three; “The Matrix”, “The Allegory of the Cave” the more eloquent “Meditation 1 of the Things of Which We May Doubt” all seem to center on the same metaphysical question of; what is real? The Matrix is much like a modern version of The Allegory of the Cave in which both the perception based reality is explored with their costs and limitations involved. It seems to me that Rene’ Descartes “Meditations on first philosophy 1641 is simply better articulated, perhaps making the same point of doubt. Whenever reading Descartes's writings “I think therefore I am” (p36 Dew & Foreman) as a rather stable foundation is always on my mind. I am not sure if this is an affinity for the strong foundation or my personal aversion to allegories but I find it quite amazing that Descartes’s century’s old writings are so relevant and understandable. Contextual similar with each other it seems the differences are mainly with presentation only. The most apparent contrast to me is that while addressing the same sort of questions that The Matrix and The allegory of the cave share the connection between the characters Neo and Plato’s prisoner while Descartes story is on a more personal level with his concern with doubt of his senses causing reservations for any and all topics of belief. I think Descartes way of dealing with skepticism is a good perspective to look at questionable...
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...MODULE 5 – G2 – ESSAY DEGREE PROGRAM THEOLOGY/TURABIAN PRESENTED TO PROFESSOR DR. GREG SCHNEEBERGER FOR PHIL 201 – D09 BY REV. JOSEPH T. WHITAKER, III LU23755920 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY LYNCHBURG, VA SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 2 Question One Compare and contrast The Matrix with the readings from Plato and Descartes. What are some similarities and differences? The Matrix describes a fictitious possibility of a virtual existence of the world and especially the world’s human population, unbeknownst by the majority of people involved in the virtual reality known as the Matrix. Certain players in the Matrix scenario are awakened to the proposition that perhaps their life experience is an orchestrated delusion, set into motion by certain governing powers, in an attempt to obtain and maintain absolute control upon the masses. An important character in the Matrix named, Morpheus, brings the deceptive virtual reality to the attention of other participants in the Matrix, in an effort to help awaken them to the real truth of their existence. It is discovered that rather than the daily life experience and existence of the population of the world, the people are actually unconscious of the absolute reality that they are all in a clinical state of suspended animation. This virtual reality of the...
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...Rene Descartes Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Value Theory Asma Naheed Introduction to Philosophy Mr. Ferguson 13 May 2016 Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a very important philosopher in the 17th century. Many regard to Descartes as the father of modern philosopher. His famous statement "Cogito ero sum" is widely known and studied. He contributed much to mathematics as well as philosophy. What does my philosopher believe is real? One thing my philosopher believes is real is the certainty of the existence of god. René Descartes has an awareness about god. And acknowledges the existence of god. One of Descartes metaphysics is his certainty about god which is examined in his Fifth Mediations “Descartes holds that the idea of God is a true and immutable nature and hence it is not something that can be rejected at all in so far as it is ultimately an innate idea”. His view is similar like mine regarding the belief of god. Though his process for believing in god is quite different then of mine, we both have a strong belief in god. My View on Rene Descartes metaphysics regarding the existence of god is disagreement. Descartes argues that god exists beyond any doubt, but I disagree. My view is not like his because, I believe his proof of good relies mostly on false premises. Descartes argues that god exists but what is the actuality of god he does not answer. An example of this can be illustrated by a student doubting whether or not they will make a good grade on the...
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...No Minds for Computers In this paper I will argue why computers can’t have a mind. In order to prove my argument, I will focus on two reasons. First I’ll argue how computers are created and controlled by humans. Then I will explain why computers don’t have the ability to think on their own. These two arguments will demonstrate why computers aren't able to have a mind. First let me elaborate what I mean by computers being created and controlled by humans. Computers are created to perform one or multiple tasks that make human life easier. Humans initiate very complicated programs in modern computers that allows the machines to fulfill millions of different tasks. The key here is that humans program these computers to complete tasks, giving the hardware only one duty which is given only by the human. So am I saying that programming is what makes a computer? Well lets take a deeper look at programming. Programming is simply providing a computer with coded instructions for the automatic performance of a particular task. Lets take an example of how a program works in a computer. In a paper written by John R. Searle, Minds, Brains, And Programming, John talks about how he pretends to be a program in a computer. In this program he is locked in a room and is given the task of answering questions in Chinese symbols. John has never spoken, written or understood any Chinese before. Outside the room will be Chinese natives asking and receiving Johns answers. John is given a manual...
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...RENE DESCARTES’ METHODS OF DOUBT Introduction The theory of knowledge and analytical method advanced by the French philosopher Rene Descartes is often summed up in the famous phrase, Cogito ergo sum- “I think, therefore I am.” While this phrase does express the final step in his systematic process of “doubting everything,” it is a gross over-simplification of Descartes’ methods. Descartes did use systematic doubt to find the starting point for his theory of knowledge, but his other philosophical inquiries involved several different methods of doubting, from simply imagining that which is contradictory, to carrying logical postulates to absurd conclusions, to the more traditional methods of testing syllogisms and analyzing proofs. In this essay, I will examine Rene Descartes’ various methods of doubt, to show that the philosopher did not rely on the single reductio ad absurdum in his famous proof of his own existence. Descartes, as we will see, employed several different approaches to philosophical proofs, and he was not the mechanistic logician that his mathematical background might suggest. It will be the argument of this essay that Descartes applied different methods of doubt to different problems, depending upon whether the problem was epistemological, scientific or theological in nature. Existential Doubt: Do I Exist? The first and best-known method of doubt employed by Descartes involves reductionism, in the sense that he used a negative or reverse logical path...
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...TI* ****** AP RHETORIC ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE DATE: QUESTION: 1; SOURCE: 1 WHAT IS REALITY? Student, Greg. “What is the nature of reality?” Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas. Dec. 2015/ Jan. 2016. Web. Jan 5, 2016. SUMMARY, FOCUS, SCOPE: This information about reality is a philosophy source that describes the meaning of reality. Student begins expressing his thoughts on the subject by making claims and beliefs about his view of the reality surrounding him. TARGET AUDIENCE: The claims and beliefs that are made are targeted towards a particular audience. Based on the contents of this article, philosophy students are the intended audience. A deep explanation of reality is being made so it would connect more to people studying/interested in the field. THEMES AND CLAIMS: Reality? A question asked to intrigue the mind, allowing our undeniable perception to surface, or matter and energy, creating a physical aspect of reality. The question “What is the nature of reality?” was asked for readers to try and come to a conclusion on this difficult question. Of course several opinions would be broadcasted but a certain individual stood out. Greg Students answer stated that reality was a mental conception. We base our reality on perception and completely ignore the physicality of reality. Our conscious thoughts perceive our reality surrounding us. “If reality is mental, we might best connect with it by skillful introspection; by a ...
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...Philosophy essay #3: Descartes’ Meditations 996922415 The debate as to whether or not God exists is a crucial question in philosophy. René Descartes formulates the idea of the all good being, God, in Meditation Three of his essay entitled, Meditations on First Philosophy. The philosopher begins his essay doubting everything that is around him, his senses, his thoughts, and even basic arithmetic. The reason he wrote the essay was to find truth to his existence. It seems logical that Descartes introduced the evil demon, one that tries to instill doubt into the simplest of things, but the introduction of God being an all perfect being that does not let him be deceived, is not logically adequate. Descartes begins criticizing everything around him, essentially being a skeptic, but he ends up introducing an explanation, God, in order to answer the questions of doubt. I strongly disagree with Descartes’ introduction of God in Meditation Three because he is not being consistent with the methods of the first two meditations therefore not achieving his goal of solving questions of doubt. In Meditation One, Descartes begins to doubt everything he has experienced to date. He asks himself whether he exists, whether has past experiences actually happened and whether his senses are true to him. He finds senses to be deceptive sometimes and therefore believes that he cannot completely trust them. He even states the most obvious truths, such as arithmetic and geometry, could be false. Descartes...
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...Nicolas, Fatima May D. 2014-45876 Spec. Thought WFY, Mr. Romulo Banares What Constitutes Reasoning as Philosophical? Philosophy consists of a very long history of arguments, counter- arguments, thesis, and theories; thus we can also see questions, and answers that lead to more questions and so on. Like most sciences, philosophy has its own procedures and its own approach to inquiries about the world. One of the central objectives of this discipline is to learn and make use of those procedures to understand the mysteries behind existence and reality. It is also a study that aims to find out the nature of truth and knowledge and to discover what is of basic value and the significance of life. As established by its founding fathers the basic business of philosophy is to know what truly exists and the relation among these existents. Reason is a method in which people acquire knowledge and understanding by means of thinking in an organized and clear way. It has played a big role in the progress of different branches of philosophy (e.g. epistemology, metaphysics, etc.) throughout the years. Some of philosophy’s longest running problems are based on reason but reason also paves way for the solution to these problems. In this paper, I will address different examples that exhibit the being philosophical of reason. REASON IN THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS Ontological arguments are arguments that assert the existence of a God by using...
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...named René Descartes (pronounced "ray-NAY day-CART") came up with a way to put these two subjects together. Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in Touraine, France. He was entered into Jesuit College at the age of eight, where he studied for about eight years. Although he studied the classics, logic and philosophy, Descartes only found mathematics to be satisfactory in reaching the truth of the science of nature. He then received a law degree in 1616. Thereafter, Descartes chose to join the army and served from 1617-1621. Descartes resigned from the army and traveled extensively for five years. During this period, he continued studying pure mathematics. Finally, in 1628, he devoted his life to seeking the truth about the science of nature. At that point, he moved to Holland and remained there for twenty years, dedicating his time to philosophy and mathematics. During this time, Descartes had his work "Meditations on First Philosophy" published. It was in this work that he introduced the famous phrase "I think, therefore I am." Descartes hoped to use this statement to find truth by the use of reason. He sought to take complex ideas and break them down into simpler ones that were clear. Descartes believed that mathematics was the only thing that is certain or true. Therefore, it could be used to reason the complex ideas of the universe into simpler ideas that were true. In 1638, La Geometrie was published. This work was responsible for making Descartes famous...
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...each other. Dualists believe that the mind and the body cannot be reduced to be the same thing because doing so will ultimately lead to the deviation of the true meaning of reality. Their focus is aimed at critical analysis of the perspectives that normally bring the differences between the mind and the body. The body is a physical reality. The brain which is part of the body is not equivalent to the mind. Physical manipulation of the brain can be achieved to attain its well-being. For example, surgery can be done to the brain if it is malfunctioning to enhance its efficiency. On the contrary, complex processes which are not physical in nature are normally used to heal mental illnesses. One of the major proponents of this perspective is Rene Descartes. Physicalism is a philosophical entity that holds the view that reality as perceived by human mind does not go beyond the observable things. This term was coined by Otto Nuerath. According to physicalists, there are no real things which are beyond the physical objects....
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