EMP-Descartes quotes

quote on commitment to complete doubt + text

‘I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions’-first meditation

quote on doubt for atheists

‘the less powerful they make my original cause, the more likely it is that I am so imperfect as to be deceived all the time’.-first med

quote on how free will makes us responsible for error

‘We have free will, enabling us to withhold our assent in doubtful matters and hence avoid error.’-principles

what makes us certain we are a thinking thing

the only condition that creates this certainty is ‘a clear and distinct perception’

reminder of past mistakes, I have…

‘previously accepted as wholly certain and evident many things which I afterwards realized were doubtful.’

reality in cause and effect is how certain?

third meditation-‘it is manifest by the natural light that there must be at least as much reality in the efficient and total cause as in the effect of that cause’

distinction that Descartes points out to Arnauld in reply

‘a distinction between what we in fact perceive clearly and what we remember having perceived clearly on a previous occasion’

Van Cleve’s solution to cartesian circle

distinction between ‘(A) For all P, if I clearly and distinctly perceive that P, then I am certain that P’ and ‘(B) I am certain that (for all P, if I clearly and distinctly perceive that P, then P)’.

the idea of god has…

‘more objective reality’

Descartes’ reply to Arnauld about god

‘To begin with, we are sure that God exists because we attend to the arguments which prove this, but subsequently it is enough for us to remember that we perceived something clearly in order for us to be certain that it is true’

first explanation for human error that Descartes looks at

human error is ‘not something real which depends on God, but merely a defect’ but ‘not entirely satisfactory’ as errors privation not negation

the intellect

The intellect allows us to ‘perceive the ideas which are subjects for possible judgements’.

deliberation as proof of limited intellect

‘if I always saw clearly what was true and good, I should never have to deliberate about the right judgement or choice’,

Descartes recognises problem that god could have saved us from error if all powerful

God could ‘have endowed my intellect with a clear and distinct perception of everything about which I was ever likely to deliberate; or he could simply have impressed it unforgettably on my memory that I should never make a judgement about anything which I did not clearly and distinctly understand.’

what does Descartes say is the object of our assent and what does Williams note about this

‘that to which I give my assent is an idea’, Williams says propositions

quote on the body

a body has a ‘determinable shape and a definable location and can occupy a space in such a way as to exclude any other body’

what is a substance

In the Principles of Philosophy, Descartes defines a substance, describing it as a thing that depends on nothing else for its existence

ambiguous quote by Descartes noted by Rozemond

‘I noticed nothing else to pertain to my nature or essence except that I am a thinking thing’.

Descartes response to Princess Elizabeth who suggests need contact to cause movement meaning mind must be extended

three separate ‘primitive notions’: the mind, the body and the mind-body union. the mind-body union can only be conceived obscurely by the intellect but is ‘known very clearly by the senses’