René Descartes – Meditations & Key Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards covering major terms, arguments, and principles from the lecture on Descartes’ Meditations, skepticism, truth, God proofs, mind-body dualism, and the foundations of empirical science.

René Descartes

Französischer Philosoph und Mathematiker des 17. Jahrhunderts, der die Meditationes de prima philosophia schrieb und den methodischen Zweifel sowie das Cogito einführte.

Meditationes de prima philosophia

Descartes’ Werk von 1641 (Meditationen über die erste Philosophie), das Wissen, Zweifel, Gott und die Unterscheidung von Geist und Körper durch sechs systematische Meditationen untersucht.

Discours de la Méthode

1637 treatise that first outlined Descartes’ method of doubt and contained a preliminary version of the Meditations.

Methodological Doubt

Descartes’ strategy of subjecting all beliefs to radical skepticism to discover indubitable foundations for knowledge.

Weak Doubt Thesis

Claim that any given belief might be false; applies to particular cases such as occasional sensory errors.

Strong Doubt Thesis

Claim that all of one’s beliefs could be false simultaneously, as in dream or evil-demon scenarios.

Sense Deception Argument

First skeptical argument: the senses sometimes mislead, so their deliverances are not absolutely certain.

Dream Argument

Second skeptical argument: there are no sure marks by which waking can be distinguished from dreaming, so perceptual beliefs can be doubted wholesale.

Evil Demon Hypothesis

Thought experiment positing an all-powerful deceiver who could systematically mislead our faculties, underpinning the strongest form of doubt.

Endoxa

Authoritative or commonly accepted opinions; rejected by Descartes as a starting-point for philosophy.

Neoplatonism

Late antique philosophical tradition rooted in Plato; part of the scholastic curriculum Descartes sought to leave behind.

Lumen naturale

The ‘natural light’ of reason that yields self-evident truths through clear and distinct perception.

Dihairesis

Logical division into genus and species; Descartes treats it as a task grounded in physics but presupposing metaphysics.

Archimedean Point

An absolutely certain standpoint from which knowledge can be constructed; for Descartes, the cogito serves this role.

Cogito ergo sum

‘I think, therefore I am’; the indubitable conclusion that the act of doubting guarantees the doubter’s existence.

Performative Self-Contradiction

Situation where the content of an utterance is negated by the act of asserting it; used to bolster the cogito.

Formal Truth

Truth of propositions that correspond to actual facts.

Material Truth

Truth of ideas in virtue of representing something real, not merely coherent.

Correspondence Theory of Truth

View that a statement is true when it matches objective reality; endorsed by Descartes.

Coherence Theory of Truth

View that truth is consistency within a belief system; explicitly rejected by Descartes.

Clear and Distinct Perception (Truth Rule)

Cartesian criterion: whatever the intellect perceives very clearly and distinctly must be true.

Cartesian Circle

Alleged circular reasoning in which Descartes relies on God to guarantee clear and distinct ideas while using such ideas to prove God’s existence.

Idea (Cartesian)

Any content of the mind; can be considered materially (as a mental act) and objectively (as what it represents).

Formal Reality

The degree of actuality something possesses in itself (e.g., a tree).

Objective Reality

The representational content possessed by an idea of something (e.g., the idea of a tree).

Causal Adequacy Principle

Rule that the cause of an idea must contain at least as much reality as the idea’s objective reality.

Innate Idea

Idea present in the mind by nature rather than derived from experience; Descartes classifies the idea of God as innate.

Ideational God Proof

Third-meditation argument that the idea of an infinite, perfect being could only have God as its cause, hence God exists.

Ontological Argument

Fifth-meditation proof asserting that existence belongs to the essence of a supremely perfect being, so such a being must exist.

Absolute Perfection

Complete, unlimited excellence; attributed solely to God in Descartes’ system.

Relative Perfection

Limited or finite excellence possessed by created things, including human constructs.

Will (Voluntas)

Human faculty of choosing or affirming; for Descartes it is unlimited and a source of error when it outruns the intellect.

Error (Irrtum)

Mistake arising when the will assents without clear and distinct perception, not from any defect in God.

Free Will (Cartesian)

Freedom defined as the ability to follow clear reasons; increased reflection enhances, not diminishes, freedom.

Substance Dualism

Doctrine that mind (res cogitans) and body (res extensa) are distinct kinds of substance.

Real Distinction

Descartes’ claim, proven in Meditation VI, that mind and body can exist independently and are therefore really distinct.

Leibniz’s Law (Substitution Principle)

Principle that if x = y, they share all properties; used in Cartesian arguments about mind-body non-identity.

Intentional Context

Linguistic environment (belief, doubt, etc.) where substituting co-referential terms can change truth-value; complicates dualist proofs.

Modal Possibility

What can be conceived without contradiction; Descartes treats conceivability as evidence of divine possibility.

Essentialism (Cartesian)

View that entities possess a fixed essence; for humans, thinking is essential whereas extension is not.

Gehirn-im-Tank-Szenario

Moderne Variante der bösen-Dämon-Hypothese (Putnam), die radikale Skepsis gegenüber der äußeren Realität illustriert.

Causal Link Requirement (Putnam)

Thesis that reference to an object requires a causal connection; used to rebut brain-in-a-vat doubts.

Higher-Order Reflection

Thinking about one’s own thoughts; necessary for Descartes’ arguments on certainty and self-knowledge.

Mental Transparency

Assumption that the mind can accurately identify the content and type of its own ideas.

Information Content (Betz)

Interpretive term replacing ‘reality’ to explain Descartes’ causal principle for ideas.

Cartesian Externalism

Position that the content (objective reality) of ideas depends on something outside the mind.

Wax Argument

Meditation II example showing that sensory qualities change while understanding of substance relies on intellect alone.

Arch of Knowledge (Building Metaphor)

Descartes’ image of using the strongest skeptical tools to reach the indestructible foundations of knowledge.

Passivity vs. Activity of Perception

Distinction between receiving sensory ideas (passive) and the external cause that produces them (active).

Reliability of the Senses

Meditation VI conclusion that while senses can err, they are generally trustworthy because God is no deceiver.

Phantom-Pain Argument

Example of sensory error used by Descartes to show how multiple modalities and reason correct isolated sense data.

Empirical Science Foundation

Descartes’ project of securing mathematics and natural science on indubitable principles after defeating skepticism.

Cartesian Physics

Mechanistic account of nature that treats bodies as extended substances governed by mathematical laws.

Substance (Unextended)

Mind; thinking thing that cannot be divided or spatially measured.

Substance (Extended)

Body; spatially extended thing subject to division and motion.

Cartesian Circle – Memory Reply

Descartes’ defense claiming that the certainty of clear and distinct perceptions is remembered from moments of evident intuition, avoiding circularity.

Dream-Demon Composite Criterion

Betz’s label for Descartes’ combined standard that knowledge must withstand both dream and evil-demon doubts.

Cartesian Freedom of Judgment

Obligation to withhold assent when clarity is lacking; misuse of this freedom explains human error.

Clear Idea vs. Vivid Image

Distinction: clarity pertains to intellectual grasp, not merely to sensory vividness or imagination.