Descartes - Required Discourse on Method & Meditations on First Philosophy - Flashcards

What is Descartes' main undertaking?

Descartes begins by stating that out senses deceive us - due to that, we should not trust them

• We must be doubtful and question reality

• He questions if our reality is real, or if it’s but a dream

• Claims that things such as physics, medicine, and the study of composite things are DOUBTFUL

• Math, geometry, arithmetic contain the CERTAIN

THEREFORE, Descartes wants to raze all his previous opinions and begin from the original foundations in order to find certainty.

How is he going to bring this project about? What is his methodology?

He'll withhold his assent from opinions that are NOT completely certain as though they were patently false.

What is his argument about dreams?

He beings with evaluating data via sense perceptions

• As mentioned he says our senses deceive us and doubts data from senses

But what if some sense perception isn’t subject to doubt?

• Present time, Immediate sense perception of objects, middle-sized objects

Dream Argument →

1) I sit by the fire. But I could be sleeping in bed. (Assumption - operative assumption)

2) “Some dreams are just like my [Descartes] waking perceptions”.

3) There’s not a sign to differ sleep and awake

Conclusion → I can’t distinguish between perceptions and vivid dreams. (Corporeal nature is doubtful!)

What is his argument for supposing "Not a supremely good God... but rather an evil genius, supremely powerful and clever, who has directed his entire effort at deceiving me"?

P1. Maybe all sense perception of the external world is illusory.

• How do I know that God hasn’t made the earth, sky, etc…

• Dream argument: limited to scope of when we are perceiving things. Evil Deceiver: scope is extend to all things.

P2. Maybe mathematics has deceived me?

• Recognized how he judges others in their mistakes on beliefs - what is he deceived by?

P3. Maybe I [Descartes] am decided that there’s a supremely good God.

• a good God wouldn’t allow deception among sense experience of external world

• But is it not contrary to his goodness that I be deceived sometimes

• Therefore God might allow me to be deceived all the time

Conclusion → I will not suppose a supremely good God, the source of truth, but rather an evil genius - who wishes to deceive

Descartes’ point → What’s essential to the doubt is not how I got my cognitive wiring, but the realization that, for all I know, my cognitive wiring is flawed.

• Result: universal doubt.

Descartes is going to re-establish his ground for mathematical knowledge in the upcoming meditation.

• Wishes to style metaphysics after mathematics - he NEVER looses faith in math

He re-established his project: What is it?

He will put aside everything that admits of the least of doubt, as if it was discovered to be false until he knows something for certain.

He will stay on this course until what?

“I will stay on this course until I know something certain, or, if nothing else, until I at least know for certain that nothing is certain.”

• Wants certainty - anyway will do

• Self-refuting again

Then he hesitates: what does he realize? Does this realization resist the scope of doubt of the evil deceiver argument?

Descartes now must come to question his OWN existence. He’s persuaded himself that there’s nothing (no sky, no minds…), but deceived him through Descartes own existence?

Descartes follows up with a very famous statement

• Let him do his best at his deception, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I shall THINK that I am something.”

• One thing he knows for sure → “I think therefore I am.”

What can he conclude about his having a body?

Right after the cogito, he claims, “But I do not yet understand sufficiently what I am”.

• Too many assumptions to claim to be a “rational animal”

• I have a face/body, I eat/walk/etc. (these are attributed to the soul

• No doubt that Descartes has a body

BUT - still claims he could be deceived and cannot say I have a soul that’s making me [Descartes] eat, move, or sense.

What can he know about himself?

“I am, I exist - this is certain, But for how long? As long as I am thinking… I am nothing but a thinking thing”.

• Has no right to assume substance, to assume thinking requires a thinker. What is a “thing that thinks”? “A thing that doubts, affirms, wills…”

• While observing wax, he sees “sensing” is nothing other than “thinking”

• Only through mind can he grasp

Philosophy of the human person- a radical separation of mind/soul/body and radical prioritization of mind.

How does he define himself?

A thing that thinks. A thing that doubts, affirms, denies, etc.

• Wonders → what is required for me to be certain?

What is required for him to be certain of anything? What general rule does he formulate?

He begins with stating “General rule that everything I clearly and distinctly perceive is true.”

He’s added a few more truths:

• The cogito and his existence

• The manner in which he grasps his own existence

• From observation → everything he perceives is true

What does he clearly perceive about his perceptions of physical things? What does he now doubt about them?

What he clearly perceives now is that there are ideas of these things hovering about my mind. Now he doubts the existence of these things. But do not doubt his ideas of them.

• Bifurcation of idea and referent

Why can God not be a deceiver?

Descartes breaks down his argument like this =>

• Could the idea, I have of God’s existence have been produced by myself?

• No, because as a finite substance I can only produce the ideas of a finite substance

• The idea of an infinitely good and powerful substance exceeds me

• The idea must have at least as much formal reality as the idea has objective reality

• I have an idea of a perfect, benevolent God

Conclusion: I must conclude that God exists.

Descartes knows he’s finite, and a finite cannot produce an infinite substance - one cannot make something that exceeds me.

God cannot be a deceiver →

• An absolutely perfect being is a good, benevolent being

• So God could not be a deceiver, since deception is a defect

• Hence those propositions I see very clearly and distinctly must be true

Descartes presents a proof of God’s existence in order to vindicate the clear and distinct criterion:

• God cannot be a deceiver, therefore I am to be assured that those propositions which I perceive clearly and distinctly are true

He is subject to error. Is human error compatible with the existence of a supremely good God?

Yes, “It may somehow be a greater perfection in the universe as a whole that some of its parts are not immune to error.”

What does Descartes argue about God in Meditation 5?

God’s existence is in everything and even if Descartes meditation has been wrong it does not disprove the existence a perfect God.

• He is gonna re-examine his ideas and define what’s clear and distinct and the confused

• God is perfect - existence is a perfection - without existence, I can’t think of God - God must exist

Now that he has perceived that there is a God, and that he is not a deceiver, what can Descartes know to be necessarily true?

Everything that he clearly and distinctly perceives is necessarily true.

What discipline can he now know with certainty?

Thus, the certainty and truth of every science depends on the knowledge of the true God → particularly MATHEMATICS!

Where is he in his project in Meditation 6?

Now he is going to consider whether material things exist.

How does Descartes argue for a real distinction between his mind and body?

1) I know that I exist and my essence is a thinking thing.

2) But, I have a body that is closely joined to me.

3) I have one c&d idea of myself (as a thinking thing) and another of my body.

4) Hence it is certain that I am really distinct from my body. I can exist without it.

What is his proof of the external world?

God isn’t a deceiver. Believes my ideas of corporeal things issue from corporeal things.

Do the mind and body connect? How? How would you characterize Descartes' notion of mind and body?

Mind and body are co-mingling.