Descartes: Discourse on Method,(Part I-IV)
Text available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/59/59-h/59-h.htm
Journals due on March 25
Questions for reading guidance:
What’s Descartes’ criterion for truth and knowledge?
What’s Descartes’ method to get such knowledge?
Do you think his method can guarantee the truth?
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What is Descartes' criterion for truth and knowledge?
ReplyDeleteDescartes gained the certainty of his existance as a thinking thing. His purpose was to find the firm foundation for knowledge in the sciences. In persuasion of this, he got into arguments trying to arrive to the truth. According to Descartes, as soon as we feel that we've percieved something, we are convinced that it is true. Since we are strongly convinced by what we feel, then it is impossible for us to doubt ourselves. So no further questions will be asked or no more inquiries will be made. Descartes understood doubt as the contrast of certainty and felt that as certainty increase, doubt decreases and vice-versa. He investigated all human sciences and strongly believed in mathematics. He felt you couldn't live your life without it. He refused to accept anything that might be false and only investigated for the truth; thus gaining knowledge.
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ReplyDeleteDescarte brought me my favorite qoute,"I am thinking, therefore i am in existence". What i did not understand is how we are not connected between our soul and body.How do we know we trule exist, or if we are simply in illusions or just dreaming. Descartes puzzled me the first and second time i read his work, though i find his approach with anylytical geometry brilliant. In life people apply their reason in different ways to come to terms with what is the truth, such as religion and religous texts.
ReplyDeleteDescarte applies a different method,simply his life's experiences and how he has evolved, his method to becoming rational.He has rejected what has been taught to him,he seems to bea rational philosopher, he even questions the existence of God, which is quite challenging,bold, but understandable in my opinion. This is because Descartes is in search for only what is fact and analyzes what others may be afraid to analyze or think about.
Alea.. i like the qoute"I am thinking, therefore i am in existence". but i think i can help you with your question. we know exist because of our surroundings, everything we make contact with has an effect, example when ever you talk to an individual you u exsist to them because they interact back with you. if we was just an illusion there would be no interaction with nothing. we would touch things or do things and we would get no reply.. do u understand where im going? but Descartes made me think why when we percieved we believe, which make me think that can be an illusion.
ReplyDeleteDescartes formulates a method of getting rid of his own bias opinions within a matter. A method where he broke things down into further pieces and reviewed them. It seems like he used the scientific method to apply it to his own philosophical knowledge. In the beginning Descartes also mentions that he sees every Philosopher appears "vain and useless". This is something that really stuck out to me because this philosophical knowledge isn't practical, we can't make money from this. Things aren't as simple as they may have been for Socrates or Plato where they could walk around teach and get by. Where are we really going with Philosophy?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Descartes probably more than any other philosopher that we studied so far. He ask the question people are afraid to ask, not worrying about being ostracized. He's more about fact than just belief. The idea of Life being an illusion is interesting. The definition of illusion in the dictionary states "illusion is a deception or misleading perception of reality; with that being said, maybe life is an illusion. I say this because we hold no absolute truth, all our ideologies come from an higher authority for the purpose of control and order. Alea and Sean, Is it possible that consciousness transcends both time and space? Or what if consciousness is something physical..our "so-called life"? We may never know for sure, but its something to think about.
ReplyDeleteParts 1-4 of Descartes' "Discourse on the Method" convey a lot of thought-provoking concepts, but the most important one for me is when Descartes asserts it is just as important to study and understand yourself as it is to do so for everything else. Descartes felt education could cloud peoples' baser, more pure thoughts and instincts with it's rules and views. As such, we should remember to take the time to explore our thoughts and feelings, so as not to forget those thoughts and instincts.
ReplyDelete-Travis Fought
Descartes: Discourse on Method
ReplyDeleteDescartes's method was to find truth in knowledge. He used science and combined that with his philosophical ideas and thoughts. Not to mention mathematics, that was something that help too. He reminded me a little of Socrates in the sense that he asked and brought up questions and topics that could be considered dangerous. Descartes was pushing the boundaries by doing something as simple as asking questions.
Sheila Lopez
Descartes pursuit to get such knowledge was that he came up with a strategy composed of 4 methods. They consist of: never accepting anything for true; to divide each of the difficulties under examination; to conduct thoughts in such order and last make enumerations so complete. I believe these methods may be substantive, however, I still believe that it is idiosyncratic. For all we know, Descartes could be another manipulator like Aristotle. Although this method might work for Descartes, it is not absolute that it is the only method to follow. People have all different types of ways to pursue knowledge. Descartes way is just one of the many. Once again this reminds me of all the texts I’ve read starting from Socrates “Apology” up until Descartes. Basically, their theoretical arguments are all subjective. I can’t say his method will guarantee truth. But overall, Descartes can’t declare his method as being accurate and absolute. People should use their own individual mind in pursuing truth.
ReplyDeleteKennee McFadden
Decartes allowed that we could be wrong about anything. Anything we saw, anything we thought, could be wrong. It was very hard to prove anything for absolutely sure. 'Skepticism' was very popular in these days, the original meaning of skepticism being the believe that nothing can be known absolutely for sure.
ReplyDeleteBut, Decartes said, the fact that we THINK about them proves that we exist. That was the one thing that could be proven, and all arguments about reality had to stem from there.
You can doubt absolutely everything, except one. If you are doubting you cannot doubt that doubting is taking place. Doubting is thinking and if something is thinking, then that something exists. I am doing the doubting, therefore I am doing the thinking, therefore, I must exist.
I think.therefore, I am
I agree with Aarian, descartes is the only philosopier that would ask question which no one wants to ask. he love the basic principles of philosophy: how do we know things to be true, what is the truth from the false, these are question we would never think of asking. even with all his knowledge descartes finds that when he investigates all human sciences, he can't prove the truth against the flase.this is when he began to douth all his existance, so he adopts the principles "i am thinking ,therefore i exist". he clearly and distinctly see the truth.we all have an existance, but we need some system of knowledge and morality to live by.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Descartes' criterion for truth and knowledge?
ReplyDeleteLets get one point that is obvious, Descartes was a rationalist, and that's why its easier to understand where his thoughts are coming from, as there is nothing to see or think than what is there, according to him. He intended to show that a belief would only be accepted as true if it just couldn't be doubted. His criterion for truth was pretty straight forward, any belief that wasn't completely and truly certain, or that it had skepticism, was false and couldn't qualify as knowledge. To make a belief to be true, it would have to be accepted only if it had a clear idea. Seems like logical thinking to me, as I stated before, his rationality is direct.
I found this reading to be particularly interesting. Descartes goes ahead and sets aside his own opinions and use the scientific method to get a further understanding of the topic.
ReplyDeleteWhat REALLY stood out to me is how he said that philosophy appeared to be useless. I was talking with Kaven yesterday about the practicality of the class as a whole, and I find it shockingly coincidental that this is what the reading has.
I argued that philosophy isn't the most practical of things on the planet.
I haven't really been able to pay attention or contribute as much as I would like to in philosophy because I see there is no way to gain from the discussions, as ignorant as it sounds. I'm really looking forward to today's discussion, to see how many people agree with what I just mentioned, and to see how well my eyes can be opened.
The Meditations represent Descartes effort to overcome doubt by showing that if one continues to steadily think about the topic, there are truths which cannot simply doubt. He does this by using a method of doubt and a method of analysis together. The method of doubt involves posing more and more powerful doubtful guess. The classes are determined by the senses, the imagination and reason or understanding. This eliminated all the truth resulting from the senses and the imagination and many of those which come from reason.
ReplyDeleteDescartes notices that over the course of his life, he has from time to time accepted false beliefs, and their falsity has infected other beliefs that he based upon them. So what he what like to do is to sort through his beliefs, set aside all the questionable ones, until he's found a perfectly secure basis, some beliefs whose truth are beyond doubt. Once he's done that, then he can consider all the questionable beliefs he set aside, and decide which of them to accept and which to reject.
ReplyDeleteI think Descartes did a good thing by realizing that he had accepted many false beliefs and he was ready to change that and get the best and secure ones out. This is a practice I think we all should do because we are told so many things from our infancy till we grow and we sometimes have no option than to believe them but if we set all of them aside and critically analyze them before reaccepting them, a lot of these false believes will be washed out. When I was young I was told when you whistle at night, you will invite ghosts to your house but when I grew up and reasoned it out I realized it was completely false.
Jonathan Hicks
ReplyDeleteI dont think that Descartes method can guarantee the truth.Simply,because the truth has the tendency to change just like the weather.What true at this present moment doesn't mean that it will be true tomorrow.Unless it's universal and that pertains to mathematics.Truth in any other form such as word of mouth or simply taking things off face value because someone else said that it's true is not the same as truth that a person may experience from their own perspective.That's why I dont believe Descartes can guarantee me the truth about anything.From my perspective I believe that experience is more meaningful to me when it comes to acknowledging the truth pertaining to anything in life.When it comes to what's true in life I prefer to experience that truth on my own.This way I cant be decieved.
Descartes’ got into arguments to try to arrive to the criterion for truth and knowledge and discover the groundwork for knowledge in sciences. Moreover, according to Descartes’ when we feel that we have perceived knowledge we believe we have found the truth. Therefore, when we are convinced that we have found the truth we feel that we cannot doubt ourselves because we apply our own reason in different ways when in come to the terms of truth. Some of us use religion concepts to believe that what we think is true cannot be wrong. The method Descartes’ used to get such knowledge is to focus only on things that are true and cannot we proven wrong. He also put his prejudice beliefs on the side and concentrated on what he thought he could find according to his experiences. I am not sure whether Descartes’ method to prove his knowledge can guarantee the truth because even though he was also considered a wise man I do not believe that everything we see, touch, or smell is truth. I believe that the truth exist because many scientist make experiments to show that something is accurate; therefore, seen we see that the result are correct we make ourselves believe that this is the truth.
ReplyDeleteI like the method that descartes would to find the truth and knowledge. also the way he would use science to truth.He would any means and mode to find the truth.we cannot believe everything we hear,there must be evidence to prove if it is true or not true.even doctors and lawyers would not tell truth most of the time but we as indiviuals must find the truth.with all the knowledge that descartes have he still lack the skill to distinguish truth from the false.descartes stated that philosophy appeared to useless in some ways i would agree and disagree with that.sometime philosophy do help us to find the truth because philosophy gives us a different mind set.In other ways philosophy might not be usefull to help us find the truth.
ReplyDeleteandrew nandalall