4. Cartesian Rationalism

Summary of decartes origin for rationalism

everything he learnt growing up was false/faulty and he wanted to restart everything he knew, and in making that new foundation he would question the world. believes in math, logic, and that god guides his logic.

casual adequacy principle

a part of decartes ontological/hall mark argument (god exists)

basically states something cannot come from nothing. since god is perfect, the idea of god must have come from something perfect as well. (god has to be the cause not humans since they are finite)

the hallmark argument

decartes argues that god exists as having the idea that god exists is itself proof. there must be at least as much reality in the cause as the effect

How does God enable Decartes to trust his “faculty of judgment” (reason)?

Because god is perfect he is not deceptive. Thus god would guide Descartes to trust his reasoning

If Descartes argument is true why do we make mistakes

its the fault of the person because they can have a wide scope of things to believe in/ make claims about, but they are gonna make mistakes if their not staying in the areas of the scope which pertain to their own knowledge

Do material bodies exist? (Decartes)

He believes they do exist. because 1. external world stimulates his senses (these align with math), 2. god is perfect and not deceiving so theres no need to doubt theyre existence

Rationalism (epistemology)

uses logic and reasoning to learn info. believes some knowledge is innate and will be developed with reasoning (not senses) (priori knowledge)

also uses deductive reasoning

Innate idea of substance

a substance or object which is still itself although its properties changes