IB philosophy - Descartes' meditations 1-3

the aim of Descartes Meditations

To ultimately free himself from all bad beliefs and to establish a firm foundation for the sciences.

Descartes facts

16th/ 17th century mathematician / philosopher.

French

Catholic

Wrote them in Latin on his own in the Netherlands

Rationalism

Reason and logic are the chief source of knowledge

Empiricism

Experience and observation are the chief sources of knowledge

Foundationalism

epistemological view that all knowledge ultimately rests upon a firm base of self evident truth/truths

Solipsism

the theory that the self is the only reality

Epistemology

study of knowledge

Name of first meditation

Of the things which may be brought within the sphere of the doubtful

Focus of meditation 1

Skepticism and the method of doubt

Meditation 1

Descartes begins by reflecting on the unfortunate fact that he has had many false beliefs.

He sets out to devise a strategy to not just prevent having false beliefs but, more dramatically, to ensure that scientific research reveals truth, not error.

3 waves of doubt:

1) his senses could deceive him - if they are sometimes deceptive then they could be always deceptive.

2) he cannot ever tell if he is dreaming or not, this is further reason to doubt any beliefs from his senses: dreams appear the same as genuine experiences: they cannot be distinguished.

3) he could be deceived by an evil demon who is deceiving him into the illusion of his senses and body and external things. He knows for sure that he has been deceived, therefore he must doubt the existence of god and therefore the demon.

There is a difference between simple & composite beings: simple is 2+3=5 and we can trust this. Composite things we cannot trust.

Universal doubt is the only thing left.

Weakness of meditation 1 - argument that we could be dreaming

Did he intend this argument to suggest the universal possibility of dreaming (not knowing dream from reality) or the possibility of a universal dream (where whole life is a dream and there is no actual waking world). If he suggests the first, then his argument is weak because it suggests that only the senses are not always wholly reliable.

Weakness of meditation 1: the foundation of his argument is unachievable

It is impossible for him to discard everything, otherwise he would have nothing to start with at all. To be true to his method he would have to discard his intuition but then he would find it impossible to even begin to continue with his study. He assumes we can depend on reason.

Weakness of meditation 1: dated theory of knowledge

Do we really need to be 100% certain of something in order to call it knowledge. Society has changed since descartes wrote this & foundationalism today relies on basic sense experience, so descartes is unusual in looking for a rational foundation.

Weakness of meditation 1: skepticism is meaningless

Ryle & Popper.

Since there is nothing which would make skepticism 'false' (falsification) it cannot be a meaningful statement about reality. If we are sceptical about skepticism then the whole basis collapses. It is unfailingly destructive because it does not allow us to construct.

Timothy Williamson: descartes' reasons for doubt are like Frankenstein's monster which he constructed but could not control.

The problem with skepticism is that everything is subject to skepticism.

Strength of meditation 1

We can not deny that we have all had experiences of our senses & dreams deceiving us

Weakness of meditation 1: the rationalist/ empiricist divide

Creating such a harsh distinction between our sense and thoughts is unhelpful because they depend on each other. They are much more intertwined than descartes allowed.

Med 1: quote for god not being a deceiver

"It is contrary to his goodness...that I constantly deceive myself."

Med 1: quote for descartes doubting everything

"if I am able to find in each one some reason to doubt, this will suffice to justifying my rejecting the whole"

Med 1: quote for not being able to trust his senses

"Senses are deceptive and it is wiser not to trust entirely to Anything by which we have once been deceived."

Name of meditation 2

Of the nature of the human mind; and that it is more easily known than the body

General idea of meditation 2

The cogito.

He is a thing which thinks and this shows that he exists.

It begins to construct off the destruction of meditation 1.

Meditation 2

Even if the evil demon is deceiving him, he still cannot doubt that he exists because by doubting that he exists, it proves that he exists as something that thinks. He still cannot know that he exists as a body.

The "I" in cogito he understands to be his soul and body.

Wax analogy.

Archimedean point.

Foundationalism

Meditation 2: wax analogy

You can never know something for certain by your experiences from the senses because the wax looks/feels/smells different depending on whether it is liquid or solid in state. If we define the wax purely by our senses' perception of it, then it would be two different things. We only know it is the same thing because our mind can recognise it as the same thing.

Promotes rationalism & rejects empiricism.

In comparing his mind to the wax, he says he can know his mind better than he can know the wax because in order to perceive the wax he must use his senses at first and then his mind provides reason, but his senses may deceive him at first. The mind is better known than the wax because it is internal.

Meditation 2: Archimedean point

'I' am a thinking thing and a thing, moreover, that certainly exists. This was Descartes Archimedean point, from which he would construct the rest of his argument off.

Weakness of meditation 2: he is not as clear as he should be

He assumes 'thought' is an attribute that is attached to an object. He assumes that someone or something is doing the thinking.

Bertrand Russell - there are 2 premises of "I am thinking" : one being hidden - there is thinking going on, and the second one being unjustified - that these thoughts belong to "me". Our thoughts could be the echoes of other peoples' thoughts or just random pieces of information that do not have an individual author.

Weakness of meditation 2: the argument implies that it is only possible to exist as long as you are thinking.

He does not specify what "I am, I exist" means for when we are in a deep sleep or trance of some sort.

Descartes response is that thinking is not simply being awake but more of an underlying "hum" in the back of your mind. However this definition of thought is outdated because neuroscience has mapped out the mind and it doesn't support this argument.

Weakness of meditation 2: it is a circular argument

He is trying to prove that "I" exist but his first premise is "I doubt." He assumes the truth of the conclusion in one (or more) of the premises.

He is also presuming that he exists by saying "I" when he begins with "I exist" and ends with "I think therefore I am". If everything is doubted, then how can he know the cogito.

Strength of meditation 2: undeniable feeling that we exist even for the biggest skeptic

It is virtually impossible to truly doubt that you don't exist even though it is possible to doubt the body and senses.

However, this claim is only based on subjective feeling.

Roger scruton - self awareness is essential to being human and we cannot stop being self aware no matter how we must doubt ourselves, our sense, or our body parts.

Strength of meditation 2: he is clear on claiming only the certainty of his own existence from the first person view and does not try to prove the existence of other minds

He also does not say that his existence is necessary but that if he thinks, then necessarily he exists,

Weakness of meditation 2: Kant

He argues that from the indubitable certainty of "I think therefore I exist" we can draw no answer at all to the question "what kind of entity am I? I who, in thinking, indubitably know that I exist."

The cogito is only ever subjective to descartes - he falls into the trap of solipsism.

Med 2: quote for Archimedean point

"Archimedes demanded that only one point can be fixed and immovable."

Med 2: quote for wax analogy

"I could not even understand through the imagination what this piece of wax is, and it is my mind alone which perceives it."

Med 2: quote for the cogito

"I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time that I pronounce it or that I mentally conceive it."

Name of meditation 3

Of god, that he exists

General idea of meditation 3

Argues for the existence of god - can he discover that god exists by using the rationalist approach?

Causal argument

Trademark / cosmological argument.

Meditation 3

Comes to the conclusion (rationally) that the idea of god in his mind could only have come from god himself. He refers to god as a clear and distinct idea.

His idea of God is not derived from the senses nor self produced, it is like a mark that our creator has stamped in our minds . (Trademark argument)

God must be an innate idea because fictitious and adventitious ideas sometimes deceive him and god is not a deceiver. If god put the idea into his mind, then god must exist.

As a finite being, descartes argues that he would not be capable of creating an idea of an infinite being (only an infinite being would be able to.)

His c & d ideas are either fictitious (unicorns & mermaids), or adventitious (they come from an external cause like senses e.g. "sirens and hippogryphs") or innate (inborn into the mind).

He considers the question of if there is no god, how did Descartes come to be?

He thinks it could either be 1) himself - but he rejects this because if he was his own creator he would not have created himself with such limitations. He considers that 2) he is created by another source but not an infinite/ omnipotent being. However he rejects this because it would go on forever- who creator his creator etc - infinite regress. He considers that 3) his parents created him, but then also - infinite regress. Therefore he decides that there must be an infinite being responsible for his existence and that must be god.

Descartes thinks that god is needed to sustain reality.

Introduces the Causal adequacy principle: that there must be at least as much reality in the total cause as in the effect. He uses the CAP to appeal that god is a perfect being as he has an idea of perfection.

Weakness of meditation 3: emergent phenomena

Often properties appear in an effect that do not exist in their cause.

Cottingham .

A sponge cake has many properties not present in the ingredients (sponginess)

Weakness of meditation 3: the causal adequacy principle

It is intended to apply to physical objects not ideas.

Also, it suggests that causes have more reality than their effects.

Weakness of meditation 3: kant

Existence is not a predicate

Weakness of meditation 3: his reason for deciding that god must be responsible for his existence

He recognises himself to be a finite being, therefore surely just because he can't think of anymore possible ways he could come about to exist apart from god, that does not necessarily mean that god is the reason he exists. His limited knowledge/thinking as a finite being cannot provide the reason for the existence of humanity.

Weakness of meditation 3: his reasoning is circular

He says the the cogito is certain because it is clearly and distinctly perceived. However, he also says c & d perceptions must be certain because they are the means by which the certainty of the cogito is achieved.

Also with geometry (2+3=5) the truths seem c&d but there's no way of really saying whether we have been deceived into believing this.

Therefore, perhaps the cogito could be cast back into doubt.

Weakness of meditation 3: finite/ infinite being

Surely as a finite being we do not really possess an understanding of what an infinite being really is therefore we cannot have an idea of one.

(However, he would only understand he is finite by having the concept of infinite.)

Weakness of meditation 3: Thomas Hobbes

Do we really have an idea of god? We don't have an image of what an infinite / omnipotent being could be.

(However it could be argued that god is abstract like fear or love.)

(It could also be argued that the fact we don't have an image of god means that it can't possibly be an adventitious or fictitious idea)

weakness of mediation 3: hume

The idea of god does not necessarily need a divine origin. Maybe humans could have formed the idea of god themselves.

Med 3: Quote for descartes' clear and distinct ideas

"As a general rule... whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true."

Med 3: quote for the 3 types of ideas

"Some ideas appear to me to be innate, some adventitious, and others to be invented by myself. "

Med 3: quote for trademark argument

" god, In creating me, placed this idea within me to be like the mark of the workman imprinted on his work; and it is likewise not essential that the mark shall be something different from the work itself."