Analysis Of Rene Descartes 's Work Discourse On The Method Of A Machine

pencil in a glass of water, the pencil will look like it is broken in half, but it is just the property of water that makes it seem like it’s broken. The next premise is that if my senses sometimes deceive me, then they might always deceive me. He stated that, “In a mark of prudence never to place our complete trust in those who have deceived us even once2.” So what Descartes means is that if someone or something deceives you once, there is a possibility that it will deceive you again. So you cannot fully trust that someone or something. His third premise was, “If my senses might always deceive me, then I cannot be certain about any beliefs acquired through my senses.” Descartes demands certainty. Therefore if something deceives him once, he cannot be certain it will not deceive him again. He cannot base any of his beliefs on his sense since he is not certain about his sense misleading him. His last premise was, “If I cannot be certain about any beliefs acquired through my senses, then I must suspend judgment on those beliefs.” Since he feels he cannot be certain about any beliefs that he gets from senses, he has to stop making conclusion based on those beliefs he got from his senses, because of his lack of certainty. Then he concludes by saying he must suspend judgment on those beliefs.

Descartes says that we understand and learn through two things that God gives us. In order to make perfect decisions or the right conclusions we must be clear and distinct in what we decide. Clear refers to something that I cannot help but to take notice of, and distinct is something I

As a thinking entity, Descartes is a consciousness mind aware of the potential to engage in various modes of existence. To the numerous operations of “thought” he includes doubting, understanding, affirming, denying, willing, refusing, imagining, and sensing. As varied and manifold as these operations appear, they are but expressions of two principal types of conscious activity, to which Descartes eventually traces the nature of error. Thinking and reasoning, together with all belief in general, depend upon the operation of the twin faculties “knowing” and “choosing,” or the free will. Garrett Thompson writes:

Rene Descartes, a rationalist, said that each person contains the criteria for truth and knowledge in them. Finding truth and knowledge comes from the individual themselves, not necessarily from God. Descartes also believed that reason is the same for every single person. Descartes believed that nothing could be true unless we as humans could perceive it. He also believed that you could break down things into smaller simpler parts. Descartes also believed that there was a relationship between the mind and body. He also believed that the idea of being perfect originated from God since God himself was perfect. He also integrates his mathematical concepts into his methodology. Descartes also applied doubt to his ideas before he

Descartes is determined to deconstruct the foundations of knowledge, in which Descartes construes that “whatever I have up till now accepted as most true I have acquired either from the senses through the senses or through the senses” (M.O.P, 12). Descartes concludes the senses have deceived him, leaving him precarious of their soundness. Consequently, Descartes manages to question their trustworthiness. In addition to that, the results from Meditation 1 cause Descartes to pursue viable candidates to succeed sensory beliefs. Subsequently, in Meditation II, Descartes sets out to constitute new knowledge on his recently established foundations, since he has shown that senses are no longer credible in discerning material bodies. In addition, Descartes conducts a thought experiment by employing a piece of wax to “consider the things which people commonly think they understand most distinctly of all; that is, the bodies which we touch and see” (M.O.P,20). Descartes comes to realize that these properties are not the result of his imagination, rather his mind. In other words, things that we naturally presume are known through the senses are in fact known through intellect. The lesson that Descartes learns from this though experiment is that he now knows, that “even bodies are not strictly perceived by the senses” (M.O.P, 22) nor

One of the most important ideas upon which Descartes’s proof of the existence of God rests is that rational minds face constraints. While God is the absolute infinite, humans and other beings exist with limitations on their actions. One of these limitations is human intellect, which Descartes names as one component of the cause of our tendency toward error as humans. The finite nature of human intellect, he argues, combines with an infinite will which causes us to seek an understanding of phenomena beyond our intellectual limitations. This is where humans make errors, according to Descartes. Although he argues that intellect is constrained in the face of free will, the presentation of intellect as a static limitation seems to fall short. Rather, it makes more sense to advance the idea of intellect as a dynamic concept which, although limited, is capable of advancing toward a greater, more accurate understanding of the mind and world.

Descartes as a rationalist believes that knowledge comes from the mind alone. During the First Meditation, Descartes came to the conclusion that there must be some kind of evil deceiver that "leads him to a state of doubt" (Descartes 77). Descartes starts out with the fact that distant sensations are subject to doubt and uncertainty. He then goes on to try and cast doubt onto close sensations. Descartes starts off by stating that close sense perception must be certain because we are not crazy, and only a insane person would doubt what was right in front of them. Descartes then uses the dream argument to cast uncertainty on close sense perception because "they are as lively, vivid and clear as reality is when we are awake" (Descartes 76). Descartes then states that geometry and math are certain. "For whether I am awake or sleeping, two and three added together always make five, and a square never has more than four sides; and it does not seem possible that truths so apparent can be suspected of any falsity or uncertainty" (Descartes 98). Descartes comes to realize this certainty because math, geometry, and the simple sciences can be understood and proved through logic and reasoning. He then uses his Deceiver Argument to cast doubt on close sensations. He questions how we know for certain that God is good, and how we know that

He finds it plausible that we are all living in a dream and we have never experienced reality. He can no longer give any credence to his senses and finds himself in a place of complete uncertainty. Descartes comes to the conclusion that nothing can be perceived more easily and more evidently than his own mind. He has discovered that even bodies are not accurately perceived by the senses or the faculty of imagination, and are only accurately being perceived by the intellect. He also realizes that they are not distinguished through being touched, smelled, or tasted, but by being understood alone. (An apple is an apple because our mind tells us that it is an apple.) It is the faculty of reason that gives the knowledge and lets the mind know the truths and essences of objects. Descartes assumes that all of us can be decided by our senses, someone can see something far away, and then discover that is not what we thought it was. Or even a oar when is immerse half in water attempt to be bent, but instead is straight. Descartes think that we cannot always be sure of what we sense, and gives the example of himself seated by the fire.

Descartes takes this idea and applies it to book learning, and he concludes that book-learning is “composed and enlarged little by little from the opinions of many different persons.” However, he believes that book-learning “does not draw nearly as close to the truth as the simple reasonings that a man of good sense can naturally make about the things he encounters.” Descartes believes that one should trust in their reason rather than in their knowledge which has been collected from the opinions of others.

Descartes argues that the purpose of pursuing knowledge is to find an ultimate truth, but comments that “the foundations of our opinions is far more custom and example than any other certain knowledge” (23). For Descartes, gaining knowledge requires that exercise their reasoning to discover a unique truth instead of blindly accepting what is held to be true by the majority. The end of knowledge is to be able to explain every ‘why’ that appears in his proposed step-by-step process of logically progressing from a question to an answer. Descartes’ deductive method involves separating and evaluating every assumption that was made to reach a certain conclusion and to “avoid haste and prejudgment (23). In this case, justifying every jumping point from a question to an answer as opposed to simply accepting what the majority believe to be true without questioning any part. Descartes’ states that using this method of deduction was his “assurance [he] had of thereby exercising [his] reason in all other matters” (25). Using his reason is important because he believes that all people have the same reasoning capabilities that are just used in different ways to produce different opinions. He emphasizes that what is commonly held to be true is not necessarily so, and thus an individual must strive to find the

In a second attempt (following Elisabeth’s dissatisfaction with the weight analogy) Descartes provides his most extensive response, explaining the three factors necessary for causal functioning, and tying them to the specific example of thought and action . This exposition is problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, Jonathon Dennett notes Descartes’ switches between using soul as the core subject of investigation to using the word “thought” which is actually an entirely separate argument; while thoughts are a necessary part of the soul/mind, they are not sufficient to explain all the processes. Secondly, in

Descartes argues that because he is capable of thought, it is therefore certain that he exists at least as a ‘thinking thing’. At the premise, Descartes states that he will only consider something to be true and certain if there is no shred of doubt, for any doubt “will be enough to justify the rejection” of its certainty (Med.1). He then discusses the senses, from which everything he had accepted as true and certain come from. He observes that the “senses sometimes [mislead] us” (Med. 1). For example, when we dream we can’t differentiate whether we are in a dream or awake. Descartes then considers mathematics, where it “remains true that two plus three make five” (Med. 1). He then argues what if some “evil genius” is making everything

Through The Mediations, Rene Descartes invites us along his path of thoughts as he develops his philosophical outlook on life. From the start, Descartes ponders the certainty of any knowledge he holds, as well as the soundness of its source. He questions his knowledge of anything and everything, even deeply questioning if he truly exists at all. The 17th century philosopher sought to distinguish how he knows what he does; ultimately challenging whether it is the senses or the mind that serves as the more desirable source of knowledge. Descartes believed that in order to truly make this discovery he would need to start from what he believed to be the foundation of things, removing all knowledge he believed to know up until this point and challenging the idea that it is our senses that justify the knowledge we hold. Ultimately through various arguments Descartes’s deemed the senses to be the more unreliable source for one to use to obtain knowledge of their surroundings and life in general.

Descartes Meditation I focuses primarily on the search for certainty. Descartes wants to find a foundation of knowledge that can stand up to the strongest skepticism, to do this Descartes discusses the two main sources of knowledge; the senses and the intellect. Humans are reliant on their senses and impressions of their senses to make judgements, gather information, and establish proofs. “Everything I have accepted up to now as being absolutely true and assured, I have learned from or through the senses.” (Descartes) Descartes believes that humans cannot build their understanding of the world on lies, anything that can be doubted even in the3 slightest, must be abandoned in favor of the truth. Descartes argues that our senses can often deceive us through three arguments: the argument from illusion, the argument from dreaming, and the argument from deception (evil genius).

Descartes theorized that in order to acquire knowledge, there essentially is some rational technique for attaining it, and that the expenditure of the senses, or any other individual capability was not a dependable basis. In his third meditation he says, “I know that even bodies are not perceived by the senses, or by the faculty of imagination, but by the intellect alone (69). As a rationalist Descartes supposed that this withstood identically for everyone, that all people have rational learned concepts. He assumed that knowledge of external things was a result of only the cognizance, and not the senses. Descartes also anticipated that the entire universe was scientifically logical, and that everything could be comprehended by deduction.