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BU PHIL 202 - Meditations 4 and 5
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Phil 202 1st Edition Lecture 6Outline of Last Lecture I. Proofs for Existence of GodII. Types of IdeasIII. What is God?IV. Descartes’ Argument and the Cartesian CircleOutline of Current Lecture I. Descartes’ Views on Philosophy TopicsII. Meditation 4: God and UnderstandingIII. Meditation 4: God and WillIV. Meditation 5Current LectureI. Descartes’ Views on Philosophy Topics1. Method – Skepticism and meditating2. Self – a thinking thing3. Reason – intellect and understanding (to see things clearly and distinctly)4. God – exists, infinite and all powerful5. Freedom – absence of indetermination/ doubt; our will is freedom (equal to God’s) [NOTE: Some people think freedom is the opposite of determination, but not Descartes.]II. Meditation 4: God and UnderstandingDescartes’ Faculty of Judgment:These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Judgment = thinking ∙Judgment = predicate of a subject; takes a particular, then puts it under something ∙general:Example: S is M; Socrates is a man.(In this case, Socrates is the particular.)Imperfection is not God’s fault. How could a good, perfect Gog allow for these bad things to happen?∙Answer 1: Humans cannot know God’s purpose so we should not try (think: stoicism) This limits human knowledge to a mathematical and mechanistic standard rather than a teleological one.∙Answer 2: Leibniz – The world as a whole is perfect, not individuals. (think: does this justify tragedy? Are tragedies good?)It is important to note that humans are prone to error because we participate in nothingness.∙The is a distinction between knowing why (knowing by the light of the intellect) and knowing ∙what (affirmation of the intellect)III. Meditation 4: God and WillError is up to us because we have ∙ will – the power to affirm or deny x.Errors occur when we think too rashly.∙Will is wider than understanding.∙The will is most free when it goes toward truth, in other words, when we think ∙ clearly and distinctly.What is clear and distinct is true, so the will to ∙ ascent to it is true. The ascent is necessary because that’s what thinking is.IV. Meditation 5 ∙ Analytic Truth – true by definition.a) If I know the definition of square (4 equal sides, 4 right angles), then I can know other things (it can be divided equally in half.)b) A bachelor is a man who is not married.c) Anything that’s perfect must exist. = God exists.Synthetic Truth – truth by experience, not true by


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