Philosophy

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a. Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes masterpiece conveys his will to erase all the previous beliefs and principles that was instilled in him during his childhood and start on a clean slate. His aim was the rebuilding of knowledge from the basics. The only way he was to accomplish this goal was by a plan called doubt. He felt that anything that could be questioned would be useless.


In Meditation on First Philosophy, Descartes argues many points from his existence to all the false beliefs and ideas he had accepted from childhood.


One of the first arguments he begins with is by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that comes to us from our senses. His aim in the arguments is not to prove that nothing exists or that it is impossible for us to know if anything exists, but to show that all our knowledge of these things comes through the senses and it is open to doubt. He uses three arguments to open all our knowledge to doubt. He says that the basic idea is that we dont ever see external objects directly but only through out minds, the images that external object produce in us. Since experiences that come through the sense do not allow us to interact or come into contact with the object itself. But only the mental picture that is painted in our minds, the sense awareness provides no definite answer that there is anything in the outside world that coincides with the images in our minds.


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There are mnay examples in Meditations that Descartes uses to prove this point. The following are the three examples he mentions in Meditations on First Philosophy


1. Dream A brilliant piece of reasoning! As if I were not a man who sleep at night, an regularly has all the same experiences while asleep as madmen do when awake- indeed sometimes even more improbable ones. How often, asleep at night, am I convinced of just such familiar events- that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire- when in fact I am lying undressed in bed! Yet at the moment my eyes are certainly wide awake when I look at this piece of paper; I shake my head and it is not asleep; as I stretch out and feel my hand I do so deliberately, and I know what I am doing. All this would not happen with such distinctness to someone asleep. Indeed! As if I did not remember other occasions when I have been tricked by exactly similar thoughts while asleep! 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 fell dazed, ad this very feeling only reinforces the notion that I may be asleep. ()


In this example he concludes that we often have perception very much like the ones we have in sensation while we are dreaming. There are no definite sign to distinguish experiences during dreams and experiences when awake. Therefore it can be possible that a person can be dreaming at any time and that all of our observations are false. He realizes that someone may not accept that all of the elements of our dreams may be distorted so he presents another example, the deceiving God.


. Deceiving God And yet firmly rooted in my mind is the long standing opinion that there is an omnipotent God who made me the kind of creature that I am. How do I know that he had not brought it about that there is no earth, no sky, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, while at the same time ensuring that all these things appear to me to exist just as they do now? What is more, since I sometimes believe that others go astray in cases where they think they have the most perfect knowledge, may I not similarly go wrong every time I add two and three or count the sides of a square, or in some even simpler matter, if that is imaginable? But perhaps God would not have allowed me to be deceived in this way, since he is said to be supremely good. But if it were inconsistent with his goodness to have created me such that I am deceived all the time, it would seem equally foreign to his goodness to allow me to be deceived even occasionally; yet this last assertion cannot be made. (4)


In this example he argues that we believe that there is an all-powerful God who has created us and has the most power. He has it in his power to make us be deceived even about the most concrete concepts such as mathematical knowledge. Therefore, Descartes concludes that it is possible that we are deceived even in our mathematical knowledge.


Lastly he comes to the evil demon example.


. Evil demon I will suppose therefore that not God, who is supremely good and the source of truth, but rather some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me. (5)


Descartes says that instead of assuming God is the source of our deception, he says to assume that there exists an evil demon that has the ability of deceiving us the same way God did. He reasons that he has a legitimate reason on why to doubt what the senses say entirely as well as mathematical knowledge.


He continues on and concludes that since the source of our knowledge does not lie on our senses. He needs to find a way to rebuild the structure of knowledge by finding the answer in his mind. The first thing he is sure of is his existence.


He is aware that he thinks, makes decisions, and is conscious of what he does, but he still rejects his body and sense. He also remarks that the only certain thing left is that there isnt any certainty. He says, anything which admits of the slightest doubt I will set aside just as if I had found it to be wholly false; and I will proceed in this way until I recognize something certain, or , if nothing else, until I at least recognize for certain that there is no certainty. (6)


The final and most important question Descartes asks himself is but I have convinces myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Does it now follow that I too do not exist? (6) He answers and says that he does because so long as I think I am something. Therefore, I am, I exist.


Another philosopher in Part I is John Locke. Locke argues that the senses are the primary source of knowledge. He brings forth the idea of the tabula rasa, which is a blank sheet with no characters. The only way the sheet of paper has materials of reason and knowledge is experience.


There are many arguments Locke mentions in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding. The following are his arguments/ ideas he mentions in the Essay


1. Innate Knowledge doesnt exist Locke attacks the possibility of innate knowledge such as the principle Whatsoever is, is; and It is impossible for the same thing to be, and not to be.(8) He attacks innate ideas such as God and infinity but his main argument is his argument against innate knowledge rests on an argument against innate principles since only principles which are statements of facts and not ideas which are the building blocks of these statements of facts can properly be called knowledge. I can know that God exists, I cannot know that God. He also discusses that if there are innate principles, then everyone would assent to them but there are no innate principles that everyone assents to so therefore there are no innate principles.


. Origination of ideas Locke says that knowledge comes from experience and that all our knowledge is build from ideas. He concludes from this that all of our knowledge can be accounted for by accounting for the origin of the ideas. Two sources of our ideas are sensation, which is when we turn our sense toward that world and receive information in the form of sight, sounds, smells, and touch. Through our senses we receives ideas such as sweet, loud, blue etc. Reflection is when we turn our mind on itself and receive ideas as thought, belief, doubt and will.


. Primary and Secondary Qualities Locke defines primary qualities as things actually in the world such as size, shape and motion that we perceive in the objects. Secondary qualities do not resemble qualities in the world such as smell, taste, and sound. In actual objects there is only size, shape and motion that causes in us the sensation of such things as color, taste and smell.


Finally, Hume provided a critique of skepticism in An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. Hume differentiates between two types of skepticism antecedent and consequent skepticism. He identifies the antecedent form of skepticism with doubt of Descartes that questions all former opinions and the sense. He suggests that there are not first principles that self evident as to be beyond doubt and that if it really existed, we wouldnt be able to go further beyond it. He says that antecedent skepticism can get further by taking small steps to something more workable.


The skepticism of the Enquiry has been instead consequent skepticism that questions conclusions and by doubting the grounds that they are based on. Hume concludes about the senses that they deceive us entirely and that experience can not take us beyond the perception we call into doubt.


In conclusion, Hume believes that reasoning about facts is only supported by experience and there are no proofs of its existence and non-existence on a substance.


b. The philosopher I understand the most is Descartes for many reasons. I feel that the opening statement of his Meditations on First Philosophy was very powerful. It made me question all the principles that have been drilled into my head for so many years and I have a doubt like Descartes on if they arent true, what is. I feel that his arguments are very powerful and it makes a person think about their existence on this earth and the purpose of them being here. It also makes them question on if they are a living being and what the purpose of their body is for.


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a. Moores Defence of Common Sense appears to me to be most critical of Descartes philosophy in Meditations on First Philosophy. In Moores, Defence of Common Sense he is doubting the existence of experience as Descartes doubted in his philosophy. Moore is saying that the experience of being conscious now he doubts that there is such fact but he admits that experiences if there were any would be mental facts. Descartes in his philosophy doubt almost everything from his existence to what he was taught in his childhood and is trying to prove if there is anything certain.


Another point that Descartes and Moore have in common is the fact that the senses are deceiving. In Moores philosophy he mentions examples such as when you place an object in the water it is bent and also an example of an object seen far away is a lot smaller than in real life. These examples are also mentioned to some extent in Descartes. Descartes mentions that the senses are deceiving at times. For example, he uses the dream argument. In this argument you are not sure if your senses are telling you if the dream is true or false.


b. In Part I and Part II of our textbook I think that Decartes philosophy tie together very well. In Part I in Meditation on First Philosophy he mentions God as being supremely good but can sometimes deceive. But in Part II, he comes across to God again and says, substance is a thing that does not need to live off of other things to exists. (74) This substance is God. He says that the only way for other things to exist is through God. He also mentions that we can be aware of substance just because it exits and only by its attributes. He also talks about existence. He says that the fact it exists doesnt do anything. You have to sense a property, its starting point. In Part I, he concludes that if you think it exists, it exists and the way you determine something exists is through sense perception. The bottom line in this philosophy is that God is the main focus and that it is because of God things exist.





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