Cartesian Method

Words: 796
Pages: 4
Open Document
The Cartesian method is comprised of two separate elements which are split into intuition and deduction. Intuition is a way of acquiring knowledge without the use of reason whilst deduction is the reasoning from one or more premises to reach a logical conclusion.
The first meditation opens up with the meditator reflecting on the number of falsehoods he has believed over the course of his lifetime. As a consequence of this he vows to wipe all the knowledge he has gained during his life and to start from the beginning at the foundations of his knowledge. The Meditator reasons that he need only find some reason to doubt his present opinions in order to prompt him to seek firmer foundations for his knowledge whilst destroying his previous opinions. …show more content…
He states that he has dreamt of sitting by the fire and has been totally convinced that he was not dreaming. Though the sensations in his dream are fake he perceives that everything that we experience in our dreams are from our experiences whilst we are awake much like a painter, who even when drawing an imaginary creature the painter still uses his experiences of animals to create the creature such as a griffin which is the body of a lion with the head of an eagle and even when a painter creates something entirely new, the colours in the painting are still drawn from real experience. The meditator concludes that he can doubt composite objects but cannot doubt simple and universal parts such as shapes, colours and quantitative data. The meditator suggests that we can doubt studies on composite subjects such as physics and astronomy, whilst concluding that we cannot doubt studies based on simple things such as mathematics. “For whether I am awake or asleep, two and three added together are five, and a square has no more than four sides, It seems impossible that such transparent truths should incur any suspicion of being false” (Descartes and Cottingham, …show more content…
The meditator suggested that an omnipotent God could deceive us by taking the impossible and making it fact, giving the mathematical example of God making one plus one equals three, rather than one add one equals two. Most people would argue that God is omnibenevolent and therefore God would not deceive his creation, therefore it would be reasonable to presume that God would not deceive us, so we could suggest that God himself does not exist, however Descartes believed this to be false as it would mean that we would be more susceptible to deceit as we were not created by a perfect being. As a result of this the meditator states that because all of his beliefs have turned out to be false and that he has been deceived the meditator comes to the conclusion that a benevolent God would not deceive him; therefore he suggests that it is in fact a demon that is trying to deceive him, therefore the meditator begins doubting his senses so that he will not be deceived by the demon meaning that the senses that we rely on are in fact useless when it comes to gaining knowledge and truth, this idea is refuted by Francks who states that “The Demon only appears here at the end, as a kind of reminder to The Thinker not to slip back into their old habits of thought” (Francks, 2008). Hence the Demon in Francks opinion is not an actual figure but instead a reminder to the reader that
Show More

Related Documents: Cartesian Method

Cartesian's Foundation On Metaphysics And Epistemological Thinking

Cartesian method bases its foundation on metaphysics and epistemological thinking. Their idea of knowledge was derived through reasons of innate ideas. This goes against the traditional beliefs of empiricism (all concepts originate with experience) that was established by Aristotle. Cartesians created probabilistic scientific concepts by observing and experimenting. However, they did not rely on the uncertainty in science since their beliefs of God were powerful. Their religious beliefs were that…

Words 1368 - Pages 6

Nt1310 Unit 6 Assignment

about the word ‘position’. 2. Write down what you understand to be the essential difference between ‘distance’ and ‘displacement’. 3. To which word – ‘distance’ or ‘displacement’ – does the term ‘route dependent’ apply? Position coordinates: The Cartesian plane…

Words 434 - Pages 2

Baruch Spinoza Philosophy

truth and he developed a philosophy which included metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. His writings include: the Short Treatise on God, man and his well being, the principals of Cartesian Philosophy, which is the only work publish under his own name, the Theologico-Political Treatise, which he published unanimously, and the Ethics, which was published after his death. Some other writings we have from Spinoza are incomplete. His philosophy…

Words 1742 - Pages 7

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system provides three physical dimensions of space – depth, width, and height which correspond to the x-y-z coordinate system. The xy, yz, and xz- planes separate the three-dimensional space into eight subdivisions known as octants, like…

Words 1217 - Pages 5

Rene Descartes Research Paper

First Philosophy shows that methodology can be applied to parts of the mind, body and soul,questions the possibility of knowledge, and expands on metaphysical themes. This book also gave way to Cartesian Physics which showed his ideas on natural philosophy. According to Britannica.com, Discourse on Method was the first present-day philosophical piece to not be written in Latin. In this book he explains his way of using reason to find the truth in all of the…

Words 464 - Pages 2

Descartes Proof Of God

TERM PAPER PHIL 1301 Prepared by Zainab Ahmed Presented to Professor Normand Theriault February 22, 2017 Section I: Cartesian Proofs of God Descartes posits two distinct but related proofs of God’s existence. The first is commonly known as the ontological argument, the simplest version of which would more or less boil down to: (major premise) We have an idea of God, (minor premise) our idea of God includes His necessary and eternal existence, (conclusion) therefore God does exist, necessarily…

Words 1002 - Pages 5

Thinking Things And Extended Things

Student ID - 10011675 8. Descartes argued that there were either ‘thinking things’ or ‘extended things’. What were the consequences for sociological theory? Throughout sociological theory Descartes is known for his Cartesian dualism theory which states two different sorts of beings. Thinking things which are the subjects and extended things which are objects. The subject is defined as the conscious mind and the object would be the world of objects, which consist of height, weight, colour and so…

Words 2957 - Pages 12

Ryle's Argument For Behaviorism

Ryle’s argument for behaviorism focuses on a logical type of behaviorism. According to Ryle’s argument there was no mental causation. His aim in The Concept of Minds was metaphilosophical, he tends to set scenarios to explain the philosophical method he uses. In The Concept of Mind, Ryle is trying to…

Words 463 - Pages 2

The Concept of Power in International Politics Essay

from simplicity, Descartes attempts to prove in “The Meditations” that the mind is distinct and separate from the body. This view is now known as Cartesian Dualism. In this essay I will outline Descartes’ main arguments, some of the criticisms of dualism, and my opinion as to which argument I perceive as the most convincing. The first argument in Cartesian Dualism is the Argument from doubt. Descartes starts by concluding that although he can conceive the possibility that his perception of his own…

Words 1587 - Pages 7

Essay on Graphics: Harshad Number and Int Width

awt (abstract windowing toolkit) package -It is used to draw shapes, lines, and strings. Paint method in JApplet public void paint(Graphics page) { … } The paint method is invoked automatically whenever the graphic elements of the applet need to be painted to the screen. Coordinate Systems Cartesian coordinate system Graphic system (0,0) x = 30 (x,y) y=28 y (x,y) = (30,28) (0,0) x Some methods of the Graphics class: void drawRect(int x, int y, int width, int height) – paints a rectangle with…

Words 601 - Pages 3