Jaymie Ticknor Intro Philosophy 1050 Sect 003 12 and 14 February 2014 Lecture 8 Rene Descartes born in 1596 Modern Era after 16th century educated by Jesuits an order in the Roman Catholic Church became a soldier in 1618 retired four years later began life as a philosopher and became famous died in 1650 from pneumonia in Sweden by request from the queen Renaissance 14th 17th century investigating humanity humanism instead of religious writings scientific revolution afterwards Classified as a rationalist like Plato gain knowledge through reason debate between rationalism senses deceives us and empiricism like Aristotle senses access knowledge Meditations most famous work 6 in total one for every day of the week one day to rest want to build a foundation of knowledge by beginning the method of doubt uncertainty to look for certainty realized that the majority of the beliefs were false looks for the truth first step in this process question everything destroy his foundation of knowledge and create a new one only accepting those truths which are certain and without exception very skeptical on beliefs during time period waited until mature and retired Meditation One doubted four things find truth can stop religious wars and fighting moral project inability to differentiate false opinions and true opinions cause problems First Thing He Doubted the senses senses deceive even once Second Thing He Doubted his sanity does not think he is but is a possibility cannot trust opinions and knowledge Third Thing He Doubted reality could be dreaming there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from asleep extreme doubt in dreams can feel sensations not much continuity disjointed no narrative of past memories or of self Fourth Thing He Doubted evil demon that has set out to deceive people doubts reason last thing to doubt necessary to go out and logically prove this Four Bulldozers of Doubt I can t trust my senses I could be crazy I could be dreaming an malicious demon could be out to fool me Meditation Two have doubted everything except the existence of himself First Certainty I doubt therefore I think therefore I exist Cogito Ergo Sum I think therefore I am there is a me to deceive I exist as a thinking thing definition of the self a thing that thinks maybe other certain universal truths that are clear and distinct ideas Meditation Three sources of ideas can be innate God in this category adventitious coming from outside of us as with our sensory perceptions or invented by us Objective Reality what ideas have also known as representational reality my Meditation Four explores truth and falsity how come we make mistakes all the time idea of an apple points to something in the real world when we have a picture of it in our head but it does not necessarily means it exists unicorn reality of the things they represent idea of thing Formal Reality reality in the real world an apple has formal reality but does not have objective reality represented reality because not an idea of anything and does not represent anything when something actually exists reality intrinsic to itself thing itself First Proof of the Existence of God idea of God must be caused by the formal reality of an existing God if has objective reality then some kind of formal reality imperfect beings have knowledge of a perfect being the very idea concept of perfection proves that there is a perfect being that exists definition of God at the time was all powerful omnipotent loving omnibenevolent knowing omniscient yet there is evil in the world cannot all be true at the same time Why would a benevolent God create evil and imperfection Answers this by saying that the mistakes are humans fault not God s fault not mistakes of perception but of jumping to a conclusion Intellect limited faculty of knowledge cannot be the source of error allows us to perceive ideas but not to make judgments on them Will unlimited faculty of choice or freedom of the will perfect and cannot be the source of error either engaged with the capacity to pursue or avoid affirm or deny basically making choices Error results from the fact that the will has a far wider scope than the understanding Intermediary between God supreme being and nothingness distinction between will and intellect combination of the two that cause error similar to the idea that God works in mysterious ways Meditation Five discussion of essences very popular in the Ancient and Scholastic Period disagrees with Aristotle that essence are empirically observed we know essences of things by the intellect and proof of God s existence concept of God includes all perfections existence is a perfection therefore God has existence Theory of Knowledge truth and certainty of every science depends upon the knowledge of God Cartesian Circle can be sure of accuracy of our clear and distinct perceptions once we have proven God exists but we can t prove that God exists without relying on the accuracy of our clear and distinct perceptions