H PHILOSIPHY - Meditation 1

How does Descartes believe that knowledge is gained?

As a rationalist, Descartes believes that knowledge is gained through reason

What is Descartes' method of doubt?

Descartes realised that most of his knowledge could have doubt. So, he demolishes all his knowledge & will use doubt to test all knowledge and therefore prevent falsehoods

However, he decides to not doubt everything and instead doubt the senses directly as this would take far too long

What were Descartes' 3 aims?

Discover a bedrock of certainty on which certainty can be further based on

To make a case for rationalism over empiricism

To find something firm & lasting in the sciences.

How does Descartes use the role of the narrator?

The role of the narrator is used to view the meditations as a story that Descartes has constructed

Why does Descartes distrust his senses, and how will he solve this?

Descartes believes that childhood senses are the foundations of falsehood. He believes his senses have deceived him meaning he can no longer trust them fully

What is Descartes' dreaming argument?

The argument that we don't have any proof that we are not just dreaming our entire realities.

Descartes believed that the vivid senses of information he can no longer trust could be a product of our dreams

He believes that there is no way to distinguish being awake or asleep. However he also said that even if everything is a dream, some things must be real, such as the truths of arithmetic and geometry.

What is the deceiving god argument?

The deceiving God argument increases the level of doubt even further, an all-powerful God could have arranged the external world to be an illusion.

A deceiving God could even threaten the truth of mathematics, and a loving God could deceive us about such things as he allows us to be deceived by our senses.

Why doesn't Descartes remove his belief of God to counter the deceiving god argument?

He believed that if we removed God as an explanation for our existence (meaning we were just here by chance) then we are even more likely to be deceived. (As the explanation for our existence is less perfect)

What does Descartes realise while exploring the deceiving god argument?

He realises that there is not one of his former beliefs that are indubitable

What is the malicious demon?

An expansion of the deceiving god argument, Descartes believed that despite his rigorous process of doubt, his old opinions keep coming back.

To prevent this he conceives a malicious demon 'to deceive' himself and pretend that his beliefs are not just dubitable but false

This allows him to counter 'the weight of pre-conceived opinion' and the 'distorting influence of habit'

What is a criticism of Descartes' indubitability?

His standard of indubitability seems too high

There are many things that we believe despite them not being indubitable, such as the world not being annihilated tomorrow.

There are many prevalent scientific theories that we trust despite there being no claim that they are indubitable, such as past human and life variants, like dinosaurs.

Descartes could refute that his indubitability is just a part of his project of seeking a firm foundation for knowledge (not everyday life).

What is a criticism of the dreaming argument?

That Descartes was wrong in claiming that there is no way of distinguishing between being awake and being asleep, as memories are clearly less vivid, and sometimes unrealistic making them distinguishable.

Descartes' argument was also argued to be asymmetric

Descartes could refute that in the end, he didn't need the dreaming argument, but this doesn't counter that the theory was wrong.

What is a criticism of Descartes' method of doubt?

Some believe that Descartes' method of doubt leads to a dead end, and that following the introduction of the malicious demon there is no way of achieving certainty

Potential rebuttal: Doubting the dubitable doesn't mean certainty isn't still out there.