Empiricist responses to descartes intuition and deduction thesis ExT

criticisms of intuition

- questionable certainty whether C+D ideas are true

- ideas not clear and distinct enough

- quick generalisation

- only internal criteria

criticism of intuition

- questionable certainty whether C+D ideas are true

A- "whatever I percieve very vividly and disctinctively are true"

C- god could be decieving us - so C+D ideas are false

D- a good god wouldn't decieve us, and god has to be good

C- C+D ideas must be true

CARTESIAN CIRCLE:

descartes uses c+d ideas to show god exists

god exists->god's existence means the following are reliable->C+D ideas are true-> these enable us to know that... (god exists)

criticism of intuition

-not clear and distinct enough

A- you cannot rely on 'feeling' knowledge- truth requires more detail than "clear" and "distinct"

C- descartes defines C+D in "the principle of philosophy"- allowing us to apply it to finding truth

D- we cannot fully apply it. cogito and mathematics are too limited

C- limitations of C+D ideas leave room for doubt

criticism of intuition

- quick generalisation

A- after success of Cogito argument- descartes generalises C+D ideas

-> not valid; e.g; observing one pink pig and assuming all pigs are pink

C- C+D ideas cannot be refuted- they hold valid guidance

D- Hume's is-ought gap

->descartes faces a logical error in "and is"->"ought to always"

criticism of intution

- only internal criteria

A- descartes uses correspondence criteria- does not check judgement against fact

->not valid; taking a good shot doesnt always mean you'll score a goal. (ryle)

C- cogito is a one off exception since the belief "i am" is self verifying.

criticism of deduction

-against trademark argument

David Hume- all our ideas come from impressions

- simple from thinking about them without experiencing it

- complex through augmentation, compounding, diminishing and transposing

we can have ideas of concepts greater than we are- thus causal adequacy principle is false.

hume's fork; applied to descartes

descartes is attempting to prove synthetic truths about the world by using a priori methods of reason (intuition and deduction) which is impossible as they rely on matters of fact and a posteriori

-> descartes fails to establish rationalism