Rene Descartes Perceptions

Abigail Ross Dr. Mendell Philosophy 8 November 22, 2014 Throughout Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he argues against the philosophy of his time; that all knowledge comes from the senses. Initially, he reasons that we can establish whether or not we are dreaming purely from our actions and experiences. However, after further scrutiny, realizes that we do not have any way of distinguishing between being awake and being asleep. Descartes’ dream argument sparked the idea that sense perception does not convey accurate information.

In Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes does and experiment with wax to try to prove that things actually exist in this world. This essay is going to prove how we can tell that things actually exist and what can perceive the wax.

From this we acquire the first realization that history, as an academic study, does not exist in a vacuum, nor does it rely solely on its own vices. In contrast, we see that in the interminable quest to find the answer to the question of “what-really-happened-in-the-past” often we rely on things that were not necessarily originally designed to be works of history and people that do not consider themselves historians to provide an accurate picture of life at the time. (Note: looking at the historical qualities of architecture and buildings shows another example of this idea; they can show a lot about a culture, such as lifestyle, artistic sensibilities and social structure)

Through his series of books, Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes enlightens his philosophical ideas about knowledge in which we should discard all belief we aren’t absolute certain about and establishes what we know for sure. In the introduction he clarifying the main ideas of each of the 6 books and using to them build up to his belief.

In spite of Calloway, Lepore, and Stavans desiring for “good history” to be written and valued by society at large, the suggested alternative forms of writing and producing history are liable to the same human fallacies and errors faced within the standard historical evidence. As Calloway notes, all historical records need critical consideration. This is due to various factors like bias, fallible memory, and audience that colors these sources. How we discern fact from fiction is still unresolved. Ultimately, the truth is relative for everyone.

In the book “Meditations on First Philosophy” Descartes’s presents six different Meditations in which he questions everything he knew and believed in. Throughout the Meditations he addresses specific topics and explains what is legitimate and why. In the film The Matrix, Neo is introduced to a computer program that is deceiving everyone in a situation much like the one Descartes’s describes in the first Meditation. Neo is one of few who realize the frightening reality while the rest continue to be deceived but, just like Descartes with his book, his mission to enlighten them about the obscure reality.

The father of modern philosophy, Rene Descartes, has had a significant impact on the realm of philosophy. The theory of mind-body dualism, a belief that the mind and the body are two distinct substances capable of operating independently, is among Descartes' most popularized philosophical works. However, this argument has stirred controversy amongst various philosophers, ultimately giving rise to the mind-body problem. This essay will closely examine the basis of Descartes' argument, as well as critique its weakest premise.

Descartes makes multiple attempts to undermine the foundations of his beliefs. The process that he takes to do this, allows him to destabilize the trust we all hold with the senses. In his endeavors to do so he comes up with multiple arguments to cause mistrust, one, that the senses have deceived us before and therefore we cannot completely trust them, two, that it is a possibility that we are all like madmen and are only hallucinating the world around us, three, that god is deceiving us and making us sense things completely incorrectly, and lastly the argument he takes with him to build his knowledge upon, is the possibility that we are dreaming. Descartes quote stating that; “there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can

Meditations on First Philosophy, written by Rene Descartes in 1641, remains as an important and influential philosophical text to today. This book contains six meditations where each meditation represents one day. Throughout his meditations, Descartes explores a variety of topics, such as: knowledge, beliefs, and more importantly, what exactly can be established as certain. In meditation ll, specifically, he proposes whether physical objects are known through sensation, imagination, or by our understanding. Descartes proceeds to use a piece of wax to illustrate that our understanding of objects stems solely from intellect.

The course of history serves as an influential bridge that connects the past with our education, future, and perspectives on crucial issues. In public education, history is a school subject that is taken by a large population of students, and although authors and historians are working to create content with less bias, the course is bound to present subjectivities. Such examples include the neglect towards the Soviet era war crimes in Eastern European countries or the lack of attention given to the Nanking Massacre in Japanese textbooks. These misleading alterations of historical content can often cause the minds of youths to lack important facts and instead be distorted with false information. Thus, in order for society to achieve incremental equality and to preserve true and meaningful historical context, we must take initiatives to

Rene Descartes was born in in La Haye, France, in 1596 and he studied at La Fleche Jesuit College and University of Poitiers. Descartes also lived in Germany, Holland and Sweden. He then worked in the army as a private councillor and then as a court philosopher. Descartes book ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ was first published in 1641. The edition used to write this essay was edited by John Cottingham and was published by the Cambridge University Press in 1996. Descartes was the first philosophy to be influenced by autonomy and physics and he also worked it all out for himself by not accepting the views of previous philosophers. During the 2nd meditation Descartes aims to forget all the preconceptions about reality and his senses and he is looking for a doubtful starting point for his thoughts . The meditator goes onto explore ontological questions about being, such as; does God exist and if the mind is better known than the body. The meditator comes to the conclusion that God does exist and that the mind and the body are two distinct things. At the end of meditations, Descartes stops writing for the nights and he comes to the conclusion that all the factors that he listed in the First Meditation are doubtful and he also continues to remind himself to not accept beliefs with the relevant evidence that they are true.

I believe Descartes did think correctly when he tried to do without the senses, but this is kind of tricky because I also think he give himself on an impossible task. I don’t agree with the part that is pointless because even myself many times have the same thought of course about different things. One of the main confusion still today is that we don’t know if we are following the right path and if the devil is the one ruling or what it is that is controlling our mind. Like the teacher mention in the course content, “doubting everything you could conceivably doubt including the fact that he exists.” He’s trying to do an impossible task, but a very important one. Descartes, “main foundation of all we know (our senses) can be deceptive and that we have souls.”(Coursecontentbb) in this line I totally agree our souls has a big part of what we sense, I may not make any senses at all,

Rene Descartes is considered the father of modern philosophy because he believed in the abandonment of all preconceived and inherited notions for a fresh start (Pojman, 182). In his philosophical work, Descartes created a complete and unique thinking with his own rules that differs from other philosophers (182). Also through his short and well written sets of meditations, he argues that the acquisition of truth or knowledge is only by reason, without demanding any knowledge from sensory experience (189). Descartes reluctantly views the empirical knowledge as an invalid system of belief to obtain the truth, but only through reason (190). In this paper, I will argue that, it is not only the reason that is essential, but also sense perception

“Je pense, donc je suis.” This French philosophical statement means, I think, therefore I am which was written in Rene Descartes’ text, Discourse on Method. In this quote, Descartes has is denying everything he believes in. Meaning, “Regardless of whether or not he is being deceived, or his beliefs are wrong, he is able to see that if he has the ability to doubt something, he must be existing to even doubt it in the first place ((Un) Enlightened English par 3).” Because Descartes can think, it guarantees his own existence. Descartes continues his examination of reality without doubting that he is by all means existing.

Knowledge is considered accurate when there is sufficient evidence that it is the truth. Over time, methods of verifying the accuracy of knowledge change. As learners, we often equate accuracy with the value of knowledge, however, the value of accuracy is dependent on the area of knowledge under consideration. Today, accuracy in the natural sciences is vital as any error can be catastrophic. In 1986, a flawed reactor and human error caused the Chernobyl disaster that exposed millions to radiation and had significant long term impacts. However in history, complete “accuracy” is almost unattainable. As historians cannot first-hand experience past events, they can only try to make connections with available sources to suggest what happened